#i'll only mention that this take is evidence that despite my problems with them I'm a Harlequinn type of guy

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Thinking a lot about the Meritocrats as gods. Not uncorrupt gods. But gods almost as much as Poseidon or Artemis or Afrodite, in a lot of senses maybe even more because even the followers of the gods begrudngly follow the dragons.

This are mythical creatures of enourmous power that built the Meritocratic Lands as they wanted and proceeded to lie to their people about the rest of the world just enough to convince them that this was how the world was/should be (basically creating a narrative where they built the word as their image).

Everyone knows that their "democratic" leaders are puppets of the Meritocrats and most people are okay with it because the Meritocrats know what is best for them. And it makes sense because the whole idea of the Meritocrats is that they are "superior beings that are stronger and enligthed and can tell you what is good and what it isn't". Hell, Barnes talks about working as a meritocratic agent in a way that feels very similar to Zolf talking about Poseidon. About the sense of purpose, of being sure he was doing good because it was the will of a superior being.

And you can't convince me that Aziza and Wilde kneeling in front of Apophis didn't feel at least a little bit connected to the divine even if it was mostly by fear (on Wilde's case, cause my man had just saw Guivres destroy Paris). And this is another point! Guivres was just allowed to destroy Paris. And she could. I mean who could even try to stop God when he raised Sodom and Gomorrah? Who could stop a fucking dragon?

More on that you can't convince me that Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan didn't felt like a demigod. He spend his whole life knowing that he was different and suddently he discovers he decends from the god-like dragons who rule his word. And he has to have felt special, powerfull. I think part of his pride on being a dragon comes from it. Hamid decends from the gods. But also this is a world where greek heros are real. And Hamid knows that his blood means he is special but he also belives it means he has to use it for good and he heard all the stories about hubris before. That's at least part of the reason he at the same time wants to lead and is terrifield of it. He feels like a greek hero and it means there is a higher chance his life is a tragedy ready to happen so he'll keep doing good and he'll make the best of it, help everyone he can and live the best life he can because greek heros usually don't live long, specially when he intends to stay as a hero.

[cafeinthemoon]

It's a Fire - Chapter II

Chapter 2

Wordcount 4,4k

Title The Porch and the Table

Fandom Kimetsu no Yaiba / Demon Slayer

Previous chapter

1

Symbols ⭕➕🖤

Warnings: mentions of grieving and parent loss; alcohol consumption

Tagging ? (If you want to be tagged in any of my stories, just leave a comment on this chapter or send an ask or a message)

N. A.: So this chapter is a bit longer than the first, but I think I should've stopped worrying about this by now hahaha I need to concentrate on what happens in each chapter and how the events move the story forward.

In this one's case, I've cut off rhe details of her arrival at Rengoku house and jumped to the beginning of her adaptation there, which includes her interactions with the staff and, specially, with her stepson, Senjuro. Of all the elements I want to explore in this ff, their relationship is one of my favorite things, so expect a strong bond to be created between them 🥺💜

About Shinjuro's appearances: I'm trying to bring a sort of growing tension each time he's around instead of just making his unpleasant traits too evident right from the start, bc I want reader to figure out the problems in her new house little by little, then trying to deal with them and make herself as comfortable as possible until she snaps and decides otherwise (spoilers haha)

I already know how I want this story to end though I just started writing it, and I believe I'll too much fun unveiling the light and and darkness in each of these characters.

Hope you enjoy this exploration mission with me 🖤

The servant sent by your father was walking in and out your new room at that moment, to bring your belongings to it. Since he was the only person who came with you, you offered to work with him, but the man declined, stating that there weren’t many things to carry and that he would soon be done.

— You made a good work packing your things even in such a small time, y/n-sama — he commented with gentleness — It made things easy.

You laughed.

— Well, I’ve tried my best. But if you’re okay with this, I’ll leave you alone. Thank you for everything.

You entered the room and, out of his sight, checked the spot where you left your sword, a place where it’d be difficult for someone to take it from; you sighed in relief with the vision of the weapon, and left to take a walk outside. There was a few spaces where you were given permission to wander – all of them separated from the parts of the house where the deceased members of your husband’s family used to stay – so, not having much to do right now (and, honestly, not knowing what to do), you were going to use the walk as an excuse to deliberate.

The wedding happened in the morning, but now it was almost midday. Your mood was no better than earlier, but you already sensed part of you accepting your new reality. You didn’t know if it was good or not, and didn’t want to figure it now, preferring to leave your mind free to think about how to act towards the circumstances.

The Rengoku House was as large and solemn as a samurai’s residence, with a wooden, rectangular structure to mark its entry, followed by a short path that led to the front doors. The building itself was raised under the traditional architecture, with two wide wings on each side and a porch to surround its premises. On the outside it was surrounded by trees, bushes and flowers; besides, the maid who led you to your room talked about the existence of a garden, but didn’t let it clear if you could visit it or not. Whatever the case, you thought it was a beautiful and silent compound you had there, despite the sensation of sadness that lingered in each spot you’ve passed by. Another thing you observed was the low number of servants, considering the house’s size, a suggestion that the Rengoku were facing problems that were similar to the ones in your father’s house – that was the only reason you could find for them to accept the good dowry that was offered alongside your hand. It was unnerving, you thought, unable to shake the feeling that you came to live there at the worst moment possible.

You then started to consider your new life as a married woman, and came to the conclusion that you weren’t getting such life at all. As soon as you arrived, you were informed that you wouldn’t share a room with your husband: yours would be in the same corridor as his, but in opposite sides; apparently, he was a man who cherished his privacy enough to organize things in a way that many would consider uncommon, to say the least. This idea seemed correct when you were led to meet your room, because as soon as you entered the house, Shinjuro ordered a maid to take care of you and walked to the other direction, disappearing from your sight, and until that moment you haven’t heard of him. Now that you remembered this, the prudent part of you was relieved that you weren’t going to share your personal space with an individual you just met, but another one, prideful, was a little outraged by the fact that you were dismissed right in your first day as a wife. Were you that uninteresting?

As you walked to an open area, your thoughts changed to lighter directions. You were content to see that the few servants you’ve met were kind enough to give you clear instructions and answer your questions concerning locations, meals and general rules, even though you couldn’t shake the sensation that they were a bit skittish, specially when they thought Shinjuro was near, but since he hasn’t appear to cause any problems you tried not to think of it. You were also relieved to observe that they did their best to keep the house clean and organized, which included your room: though you weren’t at ease with your situation, it was good to have a positive thing to point out in it.

You were thinking about this very thing when you looked around and realized your feet led you to the house’s entry again. You looked ahead and saw you weren’t alone there: a boy, not older than fourteen, was using a broom to clean the area; he worked slowly, perhaps taking care not to raise much dust, and you noticed his concentration from your spot, meters away. But what really caught your attention was the fact that he wasn’t dressed as a servant… and, well, he could never be, for he was the living reflection of the house’s head.

You remembered your mother told you that Shinjuro had two sons, but she didn’t tell you much more; maybe she never met this one. But the same silence coming from his own father was incomprehensible.

He didn’t tell me anything about this boy. Not even his name. What the hell…?

Your throat tightened when you wondered what kind of environment this kid must have been inserted.

Before your imagination could go any further, the boy saw you and stopped working. You approached him and one look at his face made you realize that the concentration you first observed wasn’t but sadness. You also noticed that his resemblance with Shinjuro was limited to his physical looks: apart from the thick eyebrows and the flaming hair, he carried a much kinder expression, with a freshness you doubted his father has ever owned, even in his youth days.

You decided not to bother him by asking about his moods, instead opting for a gentle approach.

— Hello — you smiled; and, looking around, — It seems a lot of work for one to do by themselves.

The boy showed you a hesitant smile, and his tone matched it when he replied to you.

— I know, but I don’t mind. It’s a good way to pass the time.

A moment of silence, and you noticed he wanted to continue the conversation, but struggled to find the words.

— It looks like you want to ask me something — you encouraged him.

— Yes, I do — a note of relief was sensed in his voice, as if you just did him a favor — I just don’t know how to ask this without bothering you. So… are you my father’s new wife?

The tight in your throat returned, but you forced a smile on your lips.

This is enough embarrassing for me. It doesn’t need to be like this to him as well.

— Yes, I am. My name is y/n. My family is from the (…) land. And you must be Rengoku-sama’s younger son.

— Yes. I’m Senjuro.

— That’s a good name, Senjuro-san — and, trying to imprint a comforting note in your voice, — And don’t worry, you could never bother me simply by asking this. I’m really content to meet you. You know, it’s relieving to talk casually to someone for the first time in days. It’s been a busy week, this one.

Now, Senjuro seemed to be more at ease. Maybe his days have been busy in their own way, and speaking with a new acquaintance was a welcoming change in the routine.

— I can imagine that – he commented – By the way, do you need help with something, y/n-sama?

You suddenly waved your hands in a gesture of refusal.

— Oh, no please, don’t call me like that! Y/n will do — you laughed — And, thank you, but I’ve already organized most of the things in my room. The rest will find their place with time — you sighed — For now, I just want to breathe fresh air. Fortunately, it’s a beautiful day we have now.

Senjuro observed the sky, the vivid blue spotted with big, white clouds, and agreed. You imitated him and looked at the weather with a smile.

— It's almost midday… – and, turning to him, – You know, when I was at my parents’ home, we used to eat our lunch on the porch on sunny days. Is there any problem in doing this here? What does your father think of it?

The boy shrugged.

— He doesn’t care at all. But he hates to see leftovers on the porch.

— It’s understandable — you giggled — So, how about we have lunch together on the porch? I’m still a bit lost here, so eating at the table won’t make me feel at will, but I’d still like to have company.

— It’s okay for me — he smiled.

You were afraid that Senjuro was going to see your approach as invasive, so it was with relief you heard him accepting your invitation.

— Right! I’ll ask the maid to bring our food to my room’s porch, then.

He frowned.

— Where is exactly your room? I thought you were going to, you know, stay with my father.

Your heart skipped a beat at that question, but you didn’t let out your discomfort.

– Your father decided that I’m getting a room of my own. Don’t ask me why! – you shrugged, a low laugh escaping your mouth.

You then explained the location to him, and he replied he would go there in a few minutes.

***

Lunch time was quiet and pleasing.

You found the maid who showed your room and asked her to bring food for two to your chambers. When you explained your plans to her, at first you though she was going to argue, maybe considering the possibility of having Shinjuro scolding her for allowing his wife to make a mess right in her first day at the new house, but she just agreed and asked you to wait until she brought the bowls for you and Senjuro.

After the meal itself, you’ve spent some time sitting on the porch and talking. At the same time you spoke to him about yourself, you’ve found out interesting things about your new family from your stepson.

– So… How did you and my father meet, y/n? – was his first, natural question.

– The story is a bit long, but if you have patience I can tell you – you smiled – My parents use to know your family, or so I was told. My mother was a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. She was a (…) Rank, and came in contact with your father during work. She never explained in details how missions work in the Corps, but apparently she was given a task that proved to be more difficult than it seemed at first, so she and her group were supported by Rengoku-sama. They’ve became acquaintances since then – you took the cup of juice from the tray where your bowls were brought – She met your elder brother once, when he was just a child.

You saw a glow of excitement appearing in the boy’s reddish eyes.

– She did?

– Yes! – you laughed – And she always spoke good things about your family – your smile faded a bit with the next sentence – It was like this until she passed away.

– I’m sorry for this – he replied – You know, my mother passed away when I was little. I can barely remember her.

You put a hand on his shoulder.

– It’s difficult without them. I know.

He nodded in agreement.

Talking about your mother, even though it required remembering her absence, was the easy part of the narrative, and your heart was calm while telling it. What would come after it, however, was a different story. Still, verbalizing those events to an attentive listener like Senjuro did you some good, for you managed to leave the bitterness out of your tone.

– Unlike my mother, my father never revealed to be familiar with yours until days ago, when he told me he contacted Rengoku-sama to ask for help.

– Help? How so?

– There has been little to no protection against Oni in our lands since my mother’s death, so the people who lived in the villages around have been suffering – you explained – Things became difficult even in our house, and half of our servants were fired or decided to leave. My father thought it was a good idea to contact yours and offer my hand in marriage in exchange for his protection, and somehow your father said yes – you put the cup back on the tray, lying your hands on your lap and trying not to show the trembling in them – I didn’t know about the offer until the week when the wedding should take place, and your father and I have never met before the ceremony’s day.

That part of the story seemed intriguing to Senjuro as well. Maybe he didn’t think his father was the type of person who’d accept a contract with such terms, or he was simply caught in surprise by being informed about the wedding with a few days in antecedence just like you. Whatever the case, both of you could easily agree that this situation was embarrassing, to say the least.

– That’s why I was a bit afraid earlier, you understand? – you shrugged – It’s been probably years since the last time my father saw yours, and without my mother to support us, I had no idea what I was going to find once I arrived at your house – you giggled – So, thank you for accepting my invitation and eating with me.

Senjuro imitated your gesture and left his own up on the tray, between the bowls.

– That’s okay, y/n. I've actually had my meals alone for a long time, so it was good to have company today – he replied with gentleness – I really liked to meet you.

You were intrigued with the revelation of him eating alone in his own house, but you wouldn’t question him right now. Instead, you replied that you liked meeting him as well.

The boy stood up and nodded, thanking you for the meal. But, before leaving, he turned one more time, as if he forgot to tell you something.

– You know, when I found out my father was going to marry again, I was really afraid.

You frowned.

– Afraid? Why?

He hesitated.

– Well, I… thought he was trying to replace my mother with someone else, but I’m relieved to see this isn’t true – and, urging a shy smile to let it clear that his words had no hostility, – You’re a good person, y/n.

You gave him a smile of comprehension. Of course, the worst fear of a young boy who lost his mother so soon in his life and then his big brother was concerning the kind of people his father would decide to bring under the same roof as him. Your father never met anyone after your mother, so you never had to worry about this, but if you were Senjuro's age, you’d feel the same way.

– No one can replace your mother, Senjuro-san. Actually, no one should try, me included. But it’s going to be good if we continue to get along.

For the first time, you saw him opening a smile with no signs of embarrassment or mistrust.

– I agree with you.

***

After Senjuro left to continue his tasks, you took the tray with the bowls to give them back to the kitchen. You were planning to come back to your room and carry on with the organization of your belongings: though you said to your stepson that the work was almost done in this sense, you knew you weren’t going to finish it that day.

You were walking through the corridor, thinking of this, when a shadow appeared: someone was blocking your way. You startled and raised your eyes to find Shinjuro standing before you. No word came from his mouth; his mere look was enough to make you step back.

– Rengoku-sama – you murmured – Can I help you?

Instead of answering your question, he lowered his eyes to the tray.

– Who ate lunch with you? Senjuro?

You promptly confirmed. The man stared at you for a moment, and it was impossible to tell if he was surprised or displeased.

You tried to justify yourself.

– I paused the organizations at my room and took a walk outside. I met Senjuro-san at the house’s entry. I invited him to eat lunch with me and he said yes.

Shinjuro seemed to accept this explanation, though no contentment was detected in his expression.

– I see. I hope he hasn’t bothered you.

– Absolutely not – you frowned, confused – I don’t see any reasons for him to bother me.

Again, he seemed to approve your reply, but that didn’t mean he was happy with what he heard, and his next words made it clear.

– It’s good that you’ve shown patience towards him. He can be too soft sometimes, even talking too much.

Talking too much? That Senjuro, who was constantly trying to measure his words when asking things to you? Were you speaking about the same boy?

Well, you couldn’t understand why your husband was saying such things about his own son, but considering that he didn’t even mind telling you his name, it didn’t seem reasonable for you to take his words into account.

– Well, I was very pleased to meet my stepson – you stated, taking a step to the side to indicate you were heading to the kitchen that moment – And, to me, he spoke enough. Not much, not less.

Maybe Shinjuro wasn’t expecting your reply, or maybe he didn’t want to carry on with that conversation just like you, but he commented that “at least you two got along” and how much discomfort you were all spared from thanks to this. He walked past you and left with no additional words, leaving you with intriguing thoughts.

***

Apart from other few times when you spoke to the maid or when you met Senjuro, you’ve spent most of that day by yourself, unpacking clothes and other objects, trying to figure out the best way to keep them together in your new room. The place itself was similar to your chambers in your parents’ house, both in place and shape, which somehow made things easy, yet the whole aspect of the room, aside the conscience of not being in the house you grew up in, wouldn’t let you feel entirely at will inside it. The color of the walls, the room’s position in the building, the texture of the floor, the smell of it… Everything screamed that you weren’t at home.

Your husband’s whereabouts were a mystery and, honestly, you weren’t missing his rigid presence and stern tone. He hasn’t said a word about his routine and habits, so that you didn’t know if he left the house at some point during the day, if he spent his hours in his own room, an office or anywhere else or if you should expect to see him again before the next day; being left in the dark was unnerving, of course, but not getting much useful information from the few contact you had with that man, you’d rather not to seek for him.

Shinjuro himself was a mystery to you, too.

Now that you had time to think about this, you found yourself trying to understand his real reasons to accept this marriage. Sure, your dowry was very encouraging, but one day that money would end and you would still be there, and then what? Would he kick you out of his house and replace you for a richer girl? It was too soon to tell if he was capable of such thing, but the money excuse still sounded superficial to you: accepting someone you’ve never seen before in your house just to receive a financial benefit? It didn’t make much sense. Or did he want someone to look out for Senjuro? Well, you already let it clear to the boy that you weren’t there to replace his mother, and nothing about parenting was said in the contract. Besides, Senjuro was no longer a child; the type of education he needed was beyond the one you could ever give to him: you were a well educated woman, but your education was still a female one, so that apart some lessons in Literature and sword movements you were sure he already knew, there weren’t much you could teach him; it was better to hire a tutor or invite a relative.

You were holding a pile of folded clothes at that moment. You put it on an open drawer, sat on the floor and sighed. There you had a mission you didn’t ask for.

Wasn’t it enough to make me move to this place? Do I really need to try and unveil what goes on in this man’s head? As if he would let me...

You decided to take some rest both from your task and those annoying deliberations.

***

It was only in the next morning that you heard of him again.

That time, you decided you were going to have breakfast at the table, so you woke up early, washed your face and prepared yourself.

When you arrived at the kitchen, Senjuro was already there, filling his bowl in silence. He raised his eyes when you approached and knelt in the spot in front of his.

– Good morning, Senjuro-san – you gave him a soft smile while taking your own bowl.

– Good morning, y/n.

The meal had all the reasons to be calm and quiet, and you were glad for it. You haven’t had a good night of sleep, so the last thing you needed was tension right in the morning…

But the sudden shift in the air and the change in Senjuro’s posture let you knew you weren’t going to get what you wished: you turned your head to the entry and saw Shinjuro passing through it and walking to the head of the table without a word or a look to his son or to you. He sat and just started filling his bowl, something that wouldn’t mean anything if it wasn’t for the fact that he landed a large, already opened bottle of sake on the table.

You swallowed.

Drinking at this hour? Seriously?

You glanced at Senjuro, and the boy, as if knowing better, immediately turned his attention back to his food. You tried to do the same, but Shinjuro had another surprise, this second one directed related to you.

You saw his hand pushing a paper toward you over the table. You left the hashi aside and took the paper; it was a letter.

– A letter? To me?

– It’s from your father – was the reply – He told me he would be writing to you right after you moved to my house.

You stared at the folded paper for a while, without giving him a verbal response. When you heard that it was written by your father, your curiosity somehow died inside you, and any wish to read what was in there disappeared. You left the letter on the table and grabbed your hashi again.

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by your husband.

– Won’t you open it?

You raised your eyes to him, not hiding the tiredness of the last days.

– No. I won’t.

Shinjuro naturally thought you were saying you were going to read it later, and the same could be said about Senjuro. So it wasn’t without confusion that they observed you giving up on the food for the second time, taking the letter and standing up.

There was an oven on the other side of the kitchen, which fire has been fed with coal. You calmly headed to it and, not thinking of how what you were doing was going to be seen by the presents, you tossed the letter in the flames.

You went back to your spot and found father and son staring at you in disbelief, each one for different reasons. Senjuro was probably shocked to see someone dismissing the words of a parent with no hesitation; you were actually content with that, for it was a sign that he has been taught good family principles. Shinjuro, on the other hand, had nothing but indignation with what he just saw: what kind of daughter treats her own father like this? Well, if only he had a father who treated him like yours, maybe he could understand.

They were waiting for a verbal explanation, of course, and you gave it to them.

– Senjuro-san, I’m sorry that you had to see this, but I won’t apologize for what I did. I just cannot – you said to the boy; and, turning to his father with a much lower tone, – Thank you for giving the letter to me, Rengoku-sama, but I ask you to do the same thing I did if more come. I don’t want to read them.

You saw the twist on his lips and knew exactly what he was thinking. Brat. Stubborn, ungrateful girl and many other unpleasing ways to describe a young woman who didn’t act as expected might have come to his mind that time, as well as the idea of a long, difficult path he was going to follow in his life beside you. You certainly didn’t want things to be this hard between you, and an ache in your heart reminded you of this, but this has already started in the least favorable circumstances; what should be expected, then?

What your husband said to you after this, however, had more to do with the practical aspect of things than with his personal opinion on ungrateful girls.

– Why didn’t you at least read it first? How could you know there wasn’t something important in it?

– There wasn’t – it was your prompt reply, not completely devoid of sadness – If my father had anything important to say, he would’ve done it before I left his house.

He frowned, a gesture that in his case would draw more attention than in any other individual, and spent a moment in silence, staring at you and measuring your words before grabbing the bottle of sake and drinking directly from it. You observed the firmness with which his hand left the bottle on the table after it, making a thump on the wood, and couldn’t help wonder that if you were a boy and he was angry, he could’ve yelled at you and even smacked you, but having you putting all your politeness in your words was enough to hold himself in place.

The rest of the meal went in uneasy silence, each of you lost in your own thoughts and you claiming to yourself the task of dissolving the connection with your father and keeping an eye on your stepson whenever your husband was around.

Chapter 3

[voidedaurora]

Now just to preface before her fans go crazy at me, I don't have a account in her server and I'm not specifically telling anyone to go out of their way to send me these things (aswell I do just get sent stuff in asks so there's that) DO NOT HARASS ANYONE MENTIONED/SHOWN IN SCREENSHOTS, I DO NOT CONDONE ANY AGRESSIVE, SPITEFUL, HATEFUL, OR OTHERWISE MALICIOUS BEHAVIOR!

Edit: I actually forgot to include a rlly important screenshot (her announcement about all of this)

Alot of her fans groveled at her knees after this announcement despite it basically being "yea I might make sexual jokes but sorry YOU interpreted it that way" She doesn't actually take any accountability in this? "I genuinely did not mean for any of it to be deemed as grooming" that's not even denying its grooming or apologizing for anything, it's literally just saying "I didn't want you to think about it like that" Aswell with the last part I have underlined, what evidence? how are you going to disprove you're grooming khai after everything stacked up, your current visible actions will always speak louder than your words in a screenshot with something like this. Honestly do better mel, cut this shit out, and stop being weird with people significantly younger, and set BOUNDARIES. [you can have a best friend without being sexual around them, foreign concept I know!] Whether you like it or not you're growing up, you're not a little kid just making animation memes anymore, you're nearly 19 years old and need to wake up and be responsible about this and own up to what you've done instead of your ego getting to you. Not to mention you havent addressed literally any of the other things you've been called out for because you genuinely do not care apparently.

Altogether, bad response you didn't take any accountability and blamed everyone else for "seeing it that way". end of edit:

Anyway I wanted to touch on part of the convos that've been going on in her server and clear up (once again) my side on why this is an issue since people in her server seem to exist on a different dimensional plane, ignoring everything I've said only to make up their own incorrect interpretations of my feelings/why I've done what I have here on tumblr. The SS i'll be speaking on first:

I'd like to state again for the record that while the fact she's 15 in a 16+ server is an issue (especially because its out of special treatment) It's not the main problem at hand here. The main problem with her being let in is the fact Mel allowed her to LIE about her age to get in and the fact that apparently she was also going to make an exception for another 15 yr old to be in from what I've been told? Coupled with her other recent behaviors it makes it all the more concerning. With Khai specifically/s past [that being lying to get into adult spaces to erp, draw/exchange nsfw, and a whole lot of other unsavory/inappropriate things] which again, Mel was and is 100% aware of, It's not okay for her to be letting this behavior slide and even encouraging it at this point. Khai has been lying about her age for years now and the fact she's being enabled and allowed to continue said behaviors is just not okay period, she already gets away with it but it's teaching her she can continue to do that without consequence having mel make an exception specifically just for her.

It's all genuinely so weird and just eugh, I'm extremely disappointed to see mel giving such special treatment to a whole kid just because they're besties now, especially with how she used to feel about/talk about khai before she became a wide eyed fan that looked up to her, genuinely what is up with her befriending the most parasocial fans ever. Aswell, whether you're best friends or not you shouldn't be letting/encouraging a friends bad behavior, this goes for both mels and khais actions respectively, from what I can tell they just gas eachother up and let eachother do bad shit just because, obviously khai cant really do anything to stop mels bad behaviors since she's a kid and that's not her job, but its still worth mentioning. Mel NEEDS to set boundaries if she insists on being best friends with fans/people significantly younger than her, she needs to learn what is appropriate and what is not, It's not hard to act normal around younger friends. [Imo someone 18+ honestly shouldn't be having 15 yr old best friends but that's just a personal opinion and my own morals]

And just to mention once again, I'd appreciate if the people in her server wouldn't just blatantly talk shit about me and especially would stop theorizing and prying into my mental health/BPD. I absolutely do not appreciate my disorder being used to push the idea that I just want to bring her down, just because I'm hurt from her actions doesn't make me speaking out on her blatantly terrible behavior any less valid, I can be hurt and truthfully talk about everything that's gone on simultaneously despite what a lot of people seem to believe. You've all made it quite clear you do not care about victims and would rather use "well I was (blank) and-" statements to discredit everything I or anyone else have to say about this, aswell as the whole "this should've been private!" argument as if I didn't try to handle this privately. Just because you've had an experience that went a certain way doesn't mean you have any higher ground to speak on when its about SOMEONE ELSES situation, sure you have input to give yes, but using your own experience to bring down someone else just because the one in the wrong just happens to be your #1 idol animation meme youtuber is disgusting and really makes where your priorities are at clear. Obviously everyone will believe what they're gonna believe, mels always gonna have her parasocial yesmen and there's nothing I can do to change their minds. Though I'd like so say, what has mel done to disprove any of this? Has she provided any evidence, has she given any meaningful statements?, has she properly addressed anything? the answer is no unsurprisingly. Take what she's said (or the lack of what she's said) into consideration before throwing yourself at anyone to defend her. And Fyi, Her essentially saying "nuh uh I'm not grooming anyone and I know I shouldn't be weird around friends but its a joke lol!" doesn't actually disprove anything, her actions have spoken way louder than her words ever have/will Here's a few notable screenshots/my takes on em bc auhh some of these are worded pretty rudely but I'd like to be transparent and honest.

[I originally did not censor names but I've decided to because I don't wasn't anyone getting ideas and harassing people]

Also just to add on a bit, I really hope this doesn't actually happen because why is a whole adult having a 15-16 yr old fly out to see her, and a better question would be why would her guardians allow that??

I don't think I have the full screenshot of this but reminder that mel actually was the one who refused to communicate like ever? I'd tried really hard to get mel to talk to me so we could have a private conversation about everything (her admitting to only sleeping with clover to be with me + a handful of other things) but she avoids talking things out like the plague, I gave her around 3 months before saying ANYTHING and there wasn't a single word until she'd got her friend to come up to me, only to refuse talking unless it was in a group which I absolutely was not comfortable doing (why would I ever feel comfortable having that conversation about sexual shit + personal stuff with other people around, let alone the same people who'd lied to cover for her before along with other things??) I'd like to note that I still don't have her blocked on anything so there's never been anything stopping her from reaching out other than her own ego/thoughts. same person sadly, they've got some interesting takes to say the least

Just because someone says "I'm not being groomed" or says they aren't a victim doesn't mean they actually aren't a victim, Its extremely common for a victim to be unaware they are one or even go as far as defending the abuser. I myself even struggle seeing myself as a victim sometimes and need alot of reminders (my input isn't too important but I thought I'd mention that </3)

Also khai, Idk what chronically online wording this is but I do not care about your "vrchat culture", cuddling and all that with someone significantly younger than you is weird regardless, does that "culture" also include being weird with minors in the handbook or is that just something mels added on? /gen

With this, you can be a victim and a bad person khai, in my opinion you are both. I can wish you well in one situation and not like you because of another, just because you've done terrible shit doesn't mean I want terrible shit to happen to you

Not much to say other than a 15 yr old shouldn't be "sleeping in the same bed" as an adult, let alone CUDDLING??

All I have to say with this is that yes! you are a child khai and I'm not going to give you special treatment like mel does, I genuinely do wish the best for you and that you get out of this situation though, truly. And I'll share as much as NEEDED to prove what I've said because none of it is false [if ANYTHING, there could be misunderstandings, but none of what I've said is made up, bullshit because I'm "hurt", stuff just trying to make mel look bad, etc.] , I have nothing to hide unlike mel (who's proven/disproven nothing?) Reminder I wouldn't have had to share anything if she'd handled things in private like i'd tried to, but it's a little too late for that. Best thing she can do is admit her wrongs and make some sort of response HERSELF.

Additionally

Its the way she just doesn't care and is more focused on her animation memes and her birthday coming up, don't do bad things if you cant handle consequences, or just don't do terrible stuff period?

I'll state again DO NOT HARASS ANYONE MENTIONED/SHOWN IN SCREENSHOTS, I DO NOT CONDONE ANY AGRESSIVE, SPITEFUL, HATEFUL, OR OTHERWISE MALICIOUS BEHAVIOR! Sorry if this isn't worded correctly/comes off as aggressive at all, I definitely missed some stuff aswell but I don't want this post to be too crazy long (I am upset so it definitely shows through a bit, I apologize for that, my kindness with all of this has been stretched pretty thin, especially knowing how much shit her fans are talkin about me simply because I spoke out </3)

[emerald-chan]

Hey Lynn! I hope you're doing well. I have finished the revised version if the message. As soon as you're done, I'll send it over to Dudley. And I was sure to add the people mentioned that are good members of the solars, and shouldn't be bashed.

✨✨✨✨

Hey guys, Rascal here. This particular message something's been coming for a long time now. I know that when it comes to the affairs of discourse with certain members or addressing behavior or contoversy, usually the co-leaders address and handle it then tell me the results. But this time its a matter that's gotten to a point where I was alerted to intervene myself.

My friend @LynnMagne has alerted me several times that the behavior of certain Solar members has gotten to a point where its no longer civil when it comes to disagreements, or are placing blame on other members for their actions. I've even gotten word that they refuse to listen to reason despite multiple attempts to defuse the situation or explain why their actions/words were wrong. I was also sent evidence of these actions through screenshots of conversations.

This tab only allows up to five images, but I can post the other evidences in the next post if necessary. Other rascals that have supported evidence are Davi Crossover, Dino/Mysticals and will post their responses/evidence and messages on their respective community tabs as well.

You're free to look at the below pictures that were sent as evidence of certain Solars actions. With that being said, we've come to a decided the only action that could fix this:

Banning Solar members who are also Rascals from the group and revoking their staff member status. Its not something I wanted to do, and I really hate losing people in the group, but I made the Rascals group so we could have fun together, not tear anyone apart.

There was an idea to monitor people, but this could require TONS of time and it would interfere with many regular members schedule. Not to mention that both sides would feel a lack of privacy as well. I don't mind when others want to have conversations or even disagreements, but when it escalates to a point they can't listen to reason, then we have to take action.

Last, but not least: I was also shown/told that The Solars often force Davi and Candler to not be friends with certain people due to these accusations. And many of them are incredibly serious, and shouldn't be taken lightly. Just because some rascals are friends with certain people, doesn't mean that they are the labels that have been put upon them.

It should be made clear that they shouldn't force others to end friendships. The accusations made also lead to them making their own reasons to ban people like Lynn, Davi, Dino, and Diego from the Solars. Its especially important to know that everyone-and I mean everyone-has a right to tell us problems regardless of age difference between members. We need to know about these problems and handle them together.

If we do introduce any new members from the Solars or otherwise, we suggest they work on themselves before inducting anymore members into the group. There are a few nice Solars which are Sean, Mandy, Nuke, Sonic Past Cool, Art Dragon, Clover, and Daniela. And I, nor anyone else has a problem with them. They're perfectly fine.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but this is something I've needed to address for a long time. I'm not personally mad at anyone, or holding a grudge. I'm just kind of disappointed in this coming to light. I can even understand if you're mad at me. I just want my friends to be safe as we work on what we love, either together or apart. We'll get back to the fun stuff (outside of new podcasts releasing and my Wish Rewrite videos) soon enough, we just need to get past this first.

Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry it took me a while to finally address this.

Sincerely, Rascal. 🐶

I think the draft looks good, but I realized I forgot to mention Candler as one of the nicer Solars. Overall, it looks good.

[houndsharkk]

quick disclaimer, I am not asking for a diagnosis or anything of the sort (since, while I love y'all, you are likely not medical professionals and also don't know me irl) -- I am working with a team of doctors to diagnose and treat me; I only want to use community resources to either quiet my worries or bring up as anecdotes while having a conversation with my doctor

okay !!! so

hello hEDS community. I need some help 😭 the resources available on the internet (at least that are easy to find) are not providing me with any like written or photographed evidence of physical symptoms besides the most extreme side of the spectrum so it's very difficult to figure out whether some of my symptoms are actually worth bringing up because I'm not sure if I meet the criteria or not

for some background information, I am a chubby teenager (16+) with diagnosed HSD (hypermobility spectrum), POTS, bunions, some mild developmental problems with my ankle tendons (they grew wrong or something?? i guess), diagnosed with ADHD and have a professional confirmation (not formal diagnosis, though) of autism, on testosterone (have been for nearly 2 years now), have a few mild skin conditions (eczema and keratosis pilaris), and have had untreated carpal tunnel for about 5 years

(I only mentioned all of those because I know some of them are comorbid with hEDS and some can affect the skin and cause similar symptoms so I don't want to confuse those for hEDS symptoms!!)

I am not really sure how to word this so I guess I'll just jump right into it?? the symptoms that i've been really confused and back-and-forth on are: not having any dislocations ever (possible subluxations but I'm not sure? nowhere says like.. what those feel like so I don't have a reference point), mildly stretchy skin only in some areas (around scars, stretch marks, under wrists, neck, some parts of stomach area), veins that seem to be more visible as time passes (not just in my hands/arms, but on my chest, neck, armpit area, feet, and very lightly in my legs), and very small rounded atrophic scars that seem to be showing up way more frequently (mainly on my chest where some stretch marks are, side/ribcage area, and back of my shoulders, but there are one or two on my arms as well)

I really have no idea if these actually meet the criteria or if my body is just a little bit weird but not hEDS weird?? I've found 0 sources that actually show symptoms like these 😭

symptoms I have that I know meet criteria are: heel papules, hypermobility, I think soft skin, stretch marks that seem to grow and become irritated despite my weight percentile staying mostly the same throughout my life (+ I don't gain enough weight in a short period of time for them to be as bright as they are), mild dental crowding that I had to get braces for, and chronic joint pain

any responses with like similar stories or confirming/denying that these count would really be appreciated!!!! my parents won't take me to a specialist because the rheumatologist I went to said she couldn't check for hEDS (which?? what..) and they took that as being a "you don't have that" moment so I need to wait a little bit to find one myself but I'd rather not waste my money on an appointment if it's not necessary

thank you!!!!!!!!

[schizopositivity]

Hey again, this is the anon who sent in an ask about feeling like people think I'm lying. Thanks so much for your kind answer and for letting me feel less alone. The feeling actually calmed down for a bit in regards to my friend, but now it's back (not because of my friend, but because of a new friend of hers who's started hanging out with us and who gets me really annoyed by his attitude towards me).

Now that the feeling is back, it's worse than before because her new friend actually DOES think I'm lying (I told her he gave off that vibe and she confirmed that he is "suspicious" about some things I say). I'll say things and he'll sarcastically respond with "Yeah, right" or it just seems like he wants to "challenge" every single thing I say (recent example - I was explaining something that happened in my neighborhood, and he started to say things like "Why would you say that people do that?" and "No, that doesn't happen."). Ummm. In his case, since he's not really my friend, just my friend's friend, and this has already happened a lot of times before, I'm thinking of just avoiding situations where he's around, but that also means losing time with my friend, since now he's always with her…

Sorry for sending in another ramble but this is really the only place where I feel validated about this problem. And I just don't know how to "change" my brain. I feel like other people can brush off accusations of lying (and I realize a lot of what I was experiencing before probably wasn't my friend actually thinking I was lying, but just my brain taking it that way due to not liking her questions). But now that we're hanging out with someone who really DOES think I'm lying (and had my friend confirm it, so it's not ALL in my head) it's really ruining my mood. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything, I get really upset, I start worrying that my friend thinks I'm lying again as well, and I have to provide "evidence" for her (like sending her videos or articles explaining the subjects I mentioned as proof so she won't think it's just stuff I'm pulling out of nowhere and that I'm always lying to everyone). It's to the point where I couldn't sleep last night and it actually has me feeling sick. Would it maybe be a good idea to just... kinda avoid my friend for a while? Maybe I need to take a break from socializing with others in general? Or do I maybe have to change the topics I talk about with people (like talking less about myself and my personal experiences so that if I DO get the feeling that someone thinks I'm lying, I don't take it as personally)? Thanks again.

i think its appropraite to set boundries with your friend and explain how you dont feel comfortable hanging out with her friend. thats not a friendship you really signed up for and youre allowed to not hang out with people you dont like hanging out with. hopefully your friend will understand and make time to hang out with just you and not her friend. i dont think you should avoid everyone all together, thats not great for your mental health. i also dont think you should limit what you say or how you express yourself unless its causing harm to someone else.

ive had similar situations to this in my teen years where my friend would get another friend and we would all hang out despite me not liking the other person. and at the time i didnt feel confident enough to set boundries and i wasted so many hours with random people feeling shitty.

i wish you luck in surrounding yourself with people who will understand you. i have many personal stories that seem unreal to people who have never experienced them and arent open minded. but im lucky enough to now have a support group of people who do believe me and are open minded and im very thankful for that.

[youwantedavillain]

Lol She Dmed Me! Let's Analyze It! (Part 6)

Alright let's continue our analysis! The library is open~

If we look at the first one (Dm56) we see her trying to manipulate the situation to make it look like she is virtuous and a martyr when she isn't which is revealed later on in the next few dms (61-67).

I repeatedly point at everything she says. She said before in the previous parts that she wanted attention -- thus the pointing out of "pity points". I again reinstate that I don't believe her due to the many times she has lied to me for her own benefit behind my back in a place that I couldn't reach nor ever know about. I outright state that if she didn't like me pointing out her vile actions then she shouldn't have done them in the first place -- this actively shows that she knows what she did was wrong and extremely disgusting, but it got her rocks off. I then, once again, point out her need for attention by showing her that her confession post got several hits and congratulate her on getting exactly what she wanted, me as her mighty Villain that she must take down at any cost and all the attention. She actively got what she wanted through manipulation and puppet strings. I'm ostracized from her friend group -- they will never believe me, no matter how many screenshots I have, they will not even glance at them or ever hear me out -- and smeared my name so hard that I can no longer even look at it without having those memories come back up. Plus, she now has all the attention she wants.

Upon looking at Dm61 you are probably confused but are also remembering the previous parts. She once again shows that she didn't work on herself as we pointed out previously. She also denied me the ability to try to give everyone a chance to have closure and give me a chance to "redeem myself" despite being the innocent party SEVERAL TIMES. She was uncomfortable because she knew that if I rejoined I wouldn't talk to her anymore and thus she wouldn't have ammunition and people would start realizing that she was full of shit.

Two months later I met Sarcomere after hearing that they had a problem with one of my character designs immensely. Upon meeting up they mentioned that I was nothing like @felicitythekittycat had ever said I was. Well, I told them the truth and they gave me a bombshell of evidence. Upon getting it my mental health took a nose dive off of the nearest cliff and I threatened @felicitythekittycat with a Defamation Lawsuit. She actively admits in this Dm(Dm63) that she wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't done this and acts as though her stopping due to the threat gives her ANY merit or goodwill.

It does not. In fact, it makes her look worse.

It's like a school bully constantly beating up a kid that doesn't fight back up until said kid has enough and gets the heaviest object in the room and starts beating the bully with it. The bully only stops when they realize that their victim has had enough of their shit.

I again ask.... HOW WAS IT MUTUALLY TOXIC? I did nothing. Just exist. She is actively trying to imply that I did something similar when I didn't. The symbolism here is amazing to me because she actually pulled this move previously once before. Not here mind you. Somewhere different. There is a secret player here that I have yet to mention. And that is my stalker: Kronostitan100.

I'd prefer it if I could do another post exclusively about him, but I have no other choice in the matter. Maybe in the future, I'll reiterate my points here in a post exclusive to him.

Kronostitan100 was about two years my junior when we met while I was in High School. We met during a chess game before classes started after lunch. After that game we became friends. I was never interested in him but he pursued me like it was he was a soldier on a mission. Even when I graduated and headed off to college he wouldn't stop the pursuit. He would text me from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. He wouldn't listen to me when I said something made me uncomfortable. He didn't take "No" for an answer. Just claim he did but would still continue the pursuit. Even going as far as making confessions of love extremely often. He would also go as far as getting my friends to dogpile me extremely often by claiming that I told him to kill himself and the like. I'd often find my cellphone with missed phone calls and mountains of text messages all because I made an offhanded comment that he somehow twisted into being negative and about him personally. I remember one, in particular, was me commenting that his laptop was slow, and this somehow got him to run out into a snowstorm crying, only for one of his closest friends to start berating me. Another was when I kept telling him I was in my History Class at a college, and he wouldn't stop texting me, so I turned off my phone so it wouldn't go off only for me to get home and find several missed phone calls and texts telling me I'm the biggest bitch the world has ever seen and the world would be better off without me. One day I hit my limit and decided that something drastic had to happen to get him off of my back. So I faked a suicide attempt. I do regret it and find my current depression to be a bit of well-deserved karma. It took me 8 years to get rid of him (hopefully, I'm still scared he's stalking me). However, @felicitythekittycat was the one to egg me on.

She even told him that she thought he deserved what he got.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Also, those "traces of me on the internet" she found.... was likely just me posting a final picture to deviantart of my oc killing herself: Social Suicide (Vent Art -- TW: S-icide) by Tailsgothicangel on DeviantArt

What a wonderful trace showing that I'm TOTALLY okay. TOTALLY...

What? I'm TOTALLY FINE!

Next... they claim that they thought about what I said before I initially blocked her... but that's bullshit because they claimed it was "mutually toxic" only a paragraph earlier, and in the beginning of this whole conversation they claimed they didn't know they should've reached out earlier. Also "rumors" is a pretty light word for "Ruining someone's social life and mental health so badly that they become suicidally depressed and were accused of committing the same crimes that traumatized them as a child.". Someone call a doctor; I think she shot herself in the foot with a shotgun here.

How-fucking-dare, you claim that jealousy wasn't a motive. Why were you scared that I was gonna ruin you? Because you were spreading lies? Because I had friends? With my "success" which I don't have, I was gonna specifically hurt you for what again? How is this not jealousy and paranoia? You were bitter because your friends were supporting my projects like they do with yours? I don't get how this is supposed to be "mutually toxic". Sounds more like a lie that you are trying to use to cover your ass as you fall into the fucking lava pit you dug yourself into. I can't grill this whore more than I did in Part 2 over this part of her paragraph.

So.... "I don't care about the damage I did but I know it hurt you, I looked just enough to know that you suffered because I did it all deliberately because it made me wet UwU". That is what that statement says to me.

"I don't want to portray you as the Villain" tell that to what you said in your previous paragraphs and that "Mutually Toxic" claim. Also, you claim to want to confess to your previous fuck-ups... yet here you are lying your ass off to try to take the heat off of you. You also claim to want to help me... but it looks to me like you are just trying to help yourself.

You were jealous of the attention I got from your friends and were thus threatened by it.

You were also envious of my skills.

Boo.

Fucking.

Hoo.

Cry some more.

[keefwho]

March 06 - 2024 Wednesday

10:31pm

6/10

This morning I took a little time to myself in the shower to clear my mind and hopefully get hungry. I didn't have an appetite but I made soup in a box and ate the whole thing. I had to use the bathroom and it made me a little late to Jared's ride. His car was very small, I felt cooped up in his car. We talked about my feelings and his experiences as well, specifically instances of him getting pissed at people in the military. He mentioned how there are some things he can't talk to his wife about without it actually causing more problems and this is something I learned too. It was more evidence that you need multiple people to compliment different aspects of yourself. Grocery shopping went smoothly, but I forgot to buy french fries. The old lady asked for my ID because of the drinks and I made a joke about not being expired despite my expired ID. On the way back I got to control the music and we chatted some more. I gave him a hug after we got all my groceries in. I put everything away and had to use the bathroom again. It wasn't a fun time and I decided to take another shower afterwards. I shamelessly enjoyed some 'me time' and baked in the hot water. At this point I decided to make today a self care day. When I got out, I sat down and relaxing while watching Forsen play a new Getting Over It sort of game. I ranted to Daisy about what self care meant and started composing a hierarchy of personal struggles to try and identify and relate them to one another. I cut up all the veggies I bought today for freezing and made stew for lunch. I ate the whole thing so I finally had a good meal in me. I sipped on a coke and decided to do a request today while I chatted with Turkey in VR. The conversation was pretty normal and after I finished the drawing, I felt like leaving. I told her that I didn't feel like socializing but what I actually meant was that I want to be social but I only want to talk about the struggles on my mind. She said she was here for it so I opened up about everything and we started talking. Her and her friend gave some very good perspectives and actually started helping me feel better about some things. Also a troll joined us to talk shit but we got him to open up about his problems genuinely too. I left to join Daisy and chill. We watched the last three episodes of Bojack which were very thought provoking and just stacked on to all the thinking I was already doing, in a good way. I felt good watching them with Daisy. I said goodnight to her since she didn't want to bed call. After she went to bed, I tried doing a little Babbdi stream while playing intercom vaporwave like I wanted to try. 1 guy showed up to say something but that was it. It was mostly about playing the game though and maybe using it as an opportunity to voice my thoughts some more. Towards the end I did that but most of it was spent quietly pondering.

~~~

Today after treating myself with some respect, I realized I want to talk about things more often in general. The past couple days have taught me how beneficial it is to open up when things are hard and how willing so many people are to listen. I don't have to put on a front, I can show up with the struggle at full strength. I've learned my cure to loneliness is to choose to not be alone. I also reminded myself about how important positive reinforcement is in general vs directly fighting something. So I'm working that into how I behave differently. Some part of me feels like I'm wearing a mask and that deep down, it's all still the same. Maybe thats true right now, but change takes time. Maybe I'm not going deep enough, I'll have to figure that out.

3 Things That Made Me Happy Today:

Taking some self care time.

Talking with Turkey and her friend about my feelings.

Watching Bojack with Daisy.

[shaaknaa]

There's seems to be an awful lot of Kant in OP's take, despite it looking like Machiavelli.

The bare bones version of Kantian Ethics is that there are certain Bad actions and certain Good actions. If you make rules based on these then Good things are always good and Bad things are always bad. This is boiled down, but then we're going by his memes (technical definition) not actually discussing him directly.

The first idea is that harrassment is Bad. And yeah. That's fine. No one is arguing this point and pretending they are is kinda disingenuous. I'll even include "mass harrassment is bad" under this point because also, yeah.

Now, is harrassment *always* bad? This is actually a big question. Getting harassed sucks. It also makes them reevaluate their behavior. I'm personally in the camp of "it's better to try and explain why their behavior is bad clearly and concisely," because if you punish someone without explaining the underlying principles you don't actually solve the problem. They'll just repeat the mistake. Again.

Is mass harrassment always bad? Ya'know. I might actually go with yes. Technically it depends on your opinion on mob justice. Basically, I don't trust a mob to properly identify when a crime has been committed, be proportional to said crime, or to stop when the perpetrator has changed their ways. And that's in cases where mass harrassment achieves a goal and doesn't just make them double-down. Best to just not participate in that mess.

Now, if mass harrassment it bad, surely deliberately inciting it is also bad. Well... define deliberately. Because I had a huge argument in the YouTube comments section where the dictionary definition literally ended in a draw. It can mean doing something specifically to get specific effects... or to knowingly do something despite said effects. Those aren't the same. In this case there's a big difference between "we should go harrass that guy" and "fuck, the only way to get the result I want is going to result in harrassment. I'll do my best to mitigate it but damn." Those are *not* equivalent.

And now we get to consequences. I find it very telling that the only consequences mentioned are the harrassment when Hbomb looked at everything Somerton was doing and determined the most moral course of action was to *nuke his career.* Now, call me crazy but think rent money is more important than social media presence. Despite that, Hbomb *and Todd* decided to vigilante this shit. These people generally avoid that shit. Seeing a Pop Song Reviewer drop a fact checking video was insane. Why would these people do this?

Because Somerton was causing real and lasting harm. Usually when there's a call out it's bullshit, but in this case... yeah. He needed to be called out because there was no other way to make him stop harming the community. Multiple communities, really, but mostly the Queer Community.

And Hbomb/Todd did a great job doing a real call out. They kept it to his actual actions. There was no "and he likes Killing Stalking" bullshit. Just straight up "Here's what he's done wrong. Here's undeniable proof."

Now, I'm not going to rehash the entire 5 hr+ 2hr videos. The fact that they were dense with evidence is mind boggling. So. What he did and why it caused harm:

Serial Plagarism. Even if you ignore cover-up warp, Plagarism hurts the people you steal from emotionally and monetarily, while also obfuscating sources. This discourages promising new upstarts, limits intellectual inquiry, and hurts people's careers. In creative spaces this is *mean,* in intellectual spaces it's antithetical to its core ethics. In an intellectually creative space like YouTube video essays it's all of the above.

Furthermore, he was *good* at plagarism. He used other people's good words to lull his audience into a false sense of security, so by the time he starts feeding them misinformation they trust him. Which means... it increases misinformation. Which, in a community where it's hard to find our history is particularly heinous.

Furthermore, and most importantly for this conversation, JAMES SOMERTON INCITED MASS HARRASSMENT CAMPAIGNS. He knows they're a hazard of fame, and by his own morals, he thinks mass harrassment is sometimes justified. That doesn't make it good, but it does make me less sympathetic.

With this in mind, is the Queer Community better off if James Somerton finds a new career? Yeah. Was the only way to do that 7 hours of call outs? Maybe. Does Somerton deserve harrasment on top of losing his career? Probably not. Did Hbomb and Todd do everything they could to try and get an appropriate public reaction? Yes.

Anyway OP, if you want to make an argument about whether a disclaimer is enough to assuage guilt... maybe don't use the guy getting a taste of his own medicine as the example.

My hot take about the James Somerton situation is that at this point, attaching a "don't harass them tho" disclaimer to your callout post doesn't mean anything and is actively disingenuous. Everyone ought to know by now that if you have a large platform and publicly post a list of someone's misdeeds, they're going to get mass harassed about it even if you tell people not to, so if you actually cared about not getting them harassed, you wouldn't make the callout post in the first place.

[larathia]

*deep inhale* so chapter 91. May I humbly share my thoughts with you?

I am very excited about this “God” character that has been mentioned since the beginning to FINALLY be a plot device to ‘solving’ the problem that is Nene’s lifespan.

However, I'm fairly uncertain if that is the big problem here. I do adore Nene as a protagonist for being a fresh take as neither being strong nor skillful as another protagonist commonly in shounen series, yet (same with Kou) having a strong moral despite the world being against them.

But the ‘big problem’ or rather obstacle is this ‘God’ themself for the characters. Yashiro is planned to die because of fate and cannot be with Hanako in life or death because he is supernatural. The same goes for Kou and Mitsuba as Mitsuba has stayed off the path to be human where the ‘only way’ the two could be together is for Kou to die. Hanako and the other mysteries are as they are because they were chosen by God to serve as protectors of Kamome. After all, it is its ancient grounds. The Minamoto brothers could not have a normal life because they were tasked to eliminate supernaturals that harm humans and for all we know about this God they intend to set correct relations between the dead and living.

This is a fragment of what I’ve been thinking about for the past months to now have the urge to express it thanks to the new chapter. (plus I don't want to make this ask too long) Tsukasa possibly wants to change the way God rules being I vaguely remember a chapter where after Mistuba’s wish was granted (I'll paraphrase) he wanted a world where supernatural and human coexist. Why? We don’t know that either and could speculate until the next chapter comes but we know he needs Amane and Yashiro to get him there to God.

My questions in general.

1.) Did God pick the mysteries specifically on their connections with humans?

2.) Will God play a figure as Hanako’s growth and possible future being Yashiro has influence on his humanity or will it not being Tsukasa calls bullshit for using his power for selfish reasons?

3.) I doubt Yashiro will want to continue to destroy the Yorishiros but I can see her turning the tables and wish God for something else and as, it’s been hinted, what relation does she have with God?

4.) Mitsuba???

If you read this, thank you www- I appreciate you taking the time

Wow! Okay, I wanted to wait until after I did my 'analysis' post to really dig into this but I did all that, and now it's your turn!

My first real thought here is that we've only ever heard of one being referred to as 'god' by the Yugi twins. The thing we generally call the Red House Entity, or what Tsukasa called 'the god under the house'. There are probably others! Logically, there are probably at least two gods in this series! But we've only actually got solid evidence that one of them exists.

Understand a hell of a lot is dependent on the nature of as-yet-unrevealed lore. Do the Mysteries serve someone? Are they something that the Minamoto clan set up in decades past, as an alternative to the sacrifices? We don't actually KNOW.

(Fun bit of speculation: What if Yorimitsu Minamoto is the power behind the Wonders? From what Six says, he certainly had the power to do that if he wanted to. And hey, SOMEONE had to recruit Six to the job... but you get my point. There's not a lot we know.)

So let's go with what we DO know.

The RHE is connected to 'the pit', where the kannagi were sacrificed in centuries past. The RHE grants wishes in return for sacrifices; the bigger the sacrifice, the bigger the wish that can be granted.

A severance is basically 'sacrifice a special human to temporarily block off the mortal world from the supernatural world'. It's...a wish. Like any other wish.

Tsukasa is very, very tied to the RHE. And may well want the entity to be free to do as it pleases, which may well be 'let supernaturals run rampant so that the locals offer it The Good Sacrifices again'.

Hanako is to all appearances afraid of the RHE. (Given how his family died, he may well have EXTREMELY good reasons to be.) But he's also very, very pragmatic. If the RHE is the biggest game in town, I could see Hanako going along with it.

But I'm speculating.

What's hanging on my mind just now is how much of the entire plot seems to hinge on the fact that Amane and Tsukasa are identical twins. They don't necessarily want the same things, but if asked to plot out how to GET what they want, they seem to think along broadly the same lines.

Case in point: At the outset, Hanako says he wants to atone for murdering his brother. Tsukasa says he wants supernaturals to be free to be however they want to be. Tsukasa drives Two crazy; Hanako unseats her. Because Tsukasa did that (proving he COULD do that) Hanako then moves on to 'unseat all the Wonders' - which in turn means that when Obon rolls around, the supernaturals can rampage just like Tsukasa wants. But oh! Six is in the way of a rampage! Tsukasa plots to remove Six - and when Hanako and Yashiro get entangled in Six's boundary, Hanako very nearly does Tsukasa's job for him, but Yashiro won't destroy the yorishiro. But Hanako uses Six's sacrifice to extend Yashiro's lifespan, and that brings the Minamotos raging across a Severance to take Six out and undo Hanako's work...doing Tsukasa's work instead.

You see? They're not working together, and yet at the same time both of them have gotten a lot closer to what they WANT by pinging off whatever the other one's doing. I can at present only attribute this to them being identical twins, and thus thinking in similar ways even toward different goals.

And now they seem to have the same goal, even if it's for different reasons. Tsukasa still wants rampaging supernaturals (which means No Wonders) and Hanako wants to save Yashiro (meaning he's got to win the Wish from God). But both of them need to destroy yorishiros to get what they want, and Yashiro's the only one so far who's proven able to do that.

I am very, very curious as to whether she'll take that step onto the slippery slope in order to live. In theory she could swing Hanako back to absolutely opposing his brother by simply genuinely accepting her death and heading to the Far Shore - meaning the only way Hanako ever sees her again is if he fulfills his original duty, lets go of his guilt and regret, and passes on to join her there.

I don't think that'll happen. At the same time, I just can't see her leaping to rip the seal off Sumire, depower Three, or depower Akane either. Yashiro's never had to make a hard choice of this kind before. I can't really predict what she'll do.

And all of this also ties back to Kou - if he wants to be a supernatural, well, he's been handed a golden opportunity. But will he take it? Akane and Teru still seem to be down for the count. But consider Hanako's warning; becoming a supernatural changes you, sometimes in unpredictable ways. If Kou does take that step, he may no longer be one of the Toilet Trio.

Nene and Kou have been saved, thus far, from making any truly serious decisions. Other people always took up that gauntlet for them. But now they're going to have to choose for themselves, and the story's going to hinge on what they do and how.

[xneens]

best friend’s daddy - part three

Warnings: dark!andy barber, language, mentions of age difference, mentions of sex, underage drinking, pregnancy

Word count: 4.8k

Summary: A series of snapshots with your past and current life with Andy Barber.

[highly requested—and i mean highly]

masterlist

Newton, MA - 2017 Homecoming Game

He saw you immediately, shamelessly staring at the bright, yet fake smile slapped on your face as you posed for the picture. Andy's eyes drifted to the football players arms around your waist, too far down for the assistant district attorney's liking, not that he could do anything about it. He was unable to contain the eye roll when one of the players pressed a quick kiss on your cheek while you looked at the camera.

Andy knew he had no right feeling that way. He knew you thought he hated you. The glares, the tone he used, the disapproval glances he gave Jacob whenever you were with him. It was enough evidence for you to think he didn't want you around. He didn't. But not for the same reasons as you think.

Jacob ran past him, pulling you into a hug as the players around you ran back to their pre-game huddle, hyping themselves up. He heard your laugh, his previous annoyance washing away as he listened, wishing he didn't have to keep up his act. Instead, he watched from afar, noticing the fake smile replaced by a genuine one as you hugged your best friend, your cheer skirt rising before dropping back to it's already short length as soon as Jacob let you go.

Like the years before, Laurie didn't come to the homecoming game, claiming she was far too busy with work but Andy wasn't dumb. He could see it in her face everyday, helplessly watching his wife distance herself from him. But he couldn't blame her; he was doing the same. After all, not everything is supposed to last forever.

He secretly admired you, silently praising your will to pursue the career you wanted despite the very many attempts, and lectures from your parents about becoming a lawyer. Andy had gotten calls from them, more than happy to show you around the building with your parents hope of you magically being interested in what they had planned. But you were stubborn, and you hadn't backed down. He was impressed.

You glanced at Andy, surprised he wasn't glaring at you but rather staring at you with an expression you couldn't quite place, and you quickly diverted your eyes back to Jacob. "I'm so glad you came! Thank you for not being a total nerd tonight."

"My dad practically dragged me out of the house, grumbling about how I had to support my best friend when she's on the cheerleading team." Jacob explained, motioning to his father, the older Barber climbing the stairs as he claimed a spot on the bleachers next to your father. "I think it was just an excuse to watch a game that didn't feature the Patriots."

Once again, you were surprised. As said before, you thought he didn't care for your presence; to hear he wanted his son to support you was surprisingly shocking no matter how small it was. "Oh. Looks like he and Dad are gossiping again. Your mom didn't come?"

"No, she had work. What about yours?" asked Jacob.

"Business trip." you answered, sarcasm dripping from your voice. You saw the Instagram posts her friends posted, the so-called business trip had turned into a vacation with the girls. You heard your name being yelled, your cheer squad waving you over. Turning back to Jacob, you smiled. "They're calling me over so I gotta go. I'll find you after halftime, okay? We can ditch."

Jacob arched a brow, the corner of his lips twitching up. "But you're head cheerleader. Aren't you supposed to stay for the whole game?"

"Nah, Leila can take over after halftime. I'll just make up an excuse and say I went off with a guy or something." you said, tightening your ponytail. "Oh, and don't use the last stall in the boy's bathroom. Pretty sure someone had sex in that."

"Pretty sure that someone was you." he replied, grinning as you flipped him off. He laughed when you nearly ran into toddler, apologizing to the little person before running to the squad.

Jacob joined Andy and your father, answering questions from your dad, and listening to the two fathers talk about the mundane life as the game started. Andy's vision kept drifting off to you, cheering on the sidelines as the game, accidentally missing parts of the game. Not that he minded to much, he had a nice view, and he knew the score. It wasn't that much of an inconvenience for him.

Before halftime, you snuck away, going into the school to grab another hair tie from your locker. Thankfully, the field was close to the west side of the school, the locker bay only a short walk from the entrance. Coincidentally, just as you walked towards the bathroom with the hair tie, Andy bumped into you, the phone in his hand dropping to the floor.

"Oh, shit." you cursed, quickly bending down, grabbing the phone and handing it back to your best friend's dad. "Sorry, Mr. Barber, I wasn't looking."

Andy sighed, studying his phone instead of giving into the urge to comfort your tense state. For the millionth time, he wished he didn't have to act like a dick to you. "It's fine. Just watch where your going or you might head into the mens' room."

Not knowing whether he was serious or not, you gave an awkward nod, walking pass him. You hadn't seen the lingering glance he gave you before walking back to the game. Pushing on the bathroom door, you let yourself drown in your jitters, hyping yourself up before coming back and performing.

You had forgotten about Andy by the time you returned.

—

Newton, MA - May 14, 2018

Andy heard the knock, getting out of his seat to unlock the door. A presence befall him, a feeling he only got when you were nearby. With that thought, he immediately opened the door, greeted by the sight of you soaking from the rainfall, shivering, eyes slightly swollen, and downright miserable.

He called out your name in surprise, shocked to see you in such a messy state, let alone see you in his office. "What happened? Come in, come in. Are you okay?"

"Sorry, I—" you shivered, biting your lip to keep from spilling every problem you had faced on him. "It was raining so hard that I had to stop so I wouldn't crash or anything. And this was the closest building I parked to. I ran inside but I guess it didn't make any difference seeing how soaked I am."

Andy wrapped his jacket around your shoulders, unable to find a stray blanket or anything warm to give you. He led you to the leather couch, softly pushing you down to sit on it. "Come here, sit down. Did school end early?"

"No, um, I skipped." you sniffed, sinking down on the leather, letting Andy's coat fall over your shoulders. "I had a fight with my mom. A big one. So, I didn't exactly feel that great to come to school and I've been driving around since eight."

"Sweetheart, you're soaked. You're going to get sick." Andy murmured, wiping his warm hand over your forehead, the little droplets of water wetting his hand. "I have some clean clothes in my gym bag. Tell me what you were fighting about, it might make you feel better."

You watched him grab his duffel bag from under his desk, opening your mouth to protest but the cold, wet clothes made you close it. "I made some backhand comment about having a job in fashion, then she just blew up. She wants me to be a lawyer, go to the best schools, and be successful even if I'm not happy. I told her to fuck off, yelling that I'll do what I want. She didn't like that answer, so I grabbed my keys and drove around."

Andy gave you his Patriots shirt, and a clean pair of sweats, taking his wet jacket from you. You whispered a thank you, before taking off your dripping shirt, not caring Andy was watching. He cleared his throat, diverting his eyes away from your half-naked body. "Well, what did you want to be? What do you want to do after school?"

"I don't really know, except for the fact that I don't want to be a lawyer, that's for sure." you replied, putting on the sweatpants Andy gave you, relishing in the warmth. "I'm sorry for getting your couch wet, I—"

"It's okay, don't worry about it, sweetheart. Are you okay, now? Do you want me to do something about it?" Andy asked, unsure to hug you so he settled for an awkward pat on your shoulder, moving closer to you.

You scoffed, fidgeting with the hem of the large Patriots t-shirt, rolling your eyes at the question. "Trust me, there's nothing you could do about it. They're both so persistent on me being this successful lawyer that it doesn't matter if I want to be one. Tell me, Mr. Barber, what's so fucking great about being one?"

He bit back a smile, shifting on the couch until he was touching you, the serotonin you gave him encouraged Andy to brush back your dripping hair behind your ear, tilting your chin up to meet his gaze. With wide eyes, and a slight frown, you meet his eyes. "Well, firstly, you're able to help people. In layman's terms, you either can defend a client, or prosecute a criminal. Putting the bad guys away. Um, you can meet new people, have some experiences that's unlikely for others. But, you're right. You shouldn't have to do what you're parents have planned for you."

"Try telling them that." you sniffled, goosebumps appearing on your arms, subconsciously leaning your cheek on Andy's hand. He heard the angelic sigh escape from your lips, his smile appearing. "Thank you for the clothes and everything Mr. Barber."

"Don't mention it." he replied, bravely wrapping his arms around your slightly shivering body. Andy felt you tense for a few moments before slowly relaxing, shifting so he could rest his chin on your head, his thumb rubbing soft circles on your back. After a few minutes of silence, Andy reluctantly broke the silence. "Would you like me to call Jacob?"

He saw the flash of hurt in your eyes before you composed your expression, nodding slowly as you pulled away. "Yeah, I'll call him. He has free period so he won't be missing anything, I promise. Sorry for keeping you from work, Mr. Barber."

Andy shook his head, helping you up from the couch. "No, no, no. I just had some papers to go through, you didn't keep me from anything. The rain is slowing but you can stay in here until Jake comes. If you want."

You nodded, giving him a weak smile. "Thank you."

—

The Barber House - June 1, 2018

Giggling uncontrollably, you leaned against Jacob, a bottle of beer in your hand. Jacob laughed over the cartoon character with you, throwing his head back at the ridiculous scene on screen. Scooby had just stared at the screen, ending the episode, the screen turning black before another episode started. The noise Scooby made just had you and Jacob in another fit of uncontrollable laughter.

The sleepover had been spontaneous, yet long way overdue. In less than a week, you'd have graduated, and moved out of Boston, living in New York City as you went to the same college. That was one of the upside of finally leaving Newton, but even with the continuous nagging from your parents, you were still going to miss them.

You had been extra quiet, knowing full well Andy was stressed for something Laurie had done, the wife walking out of the house just as you had pulled up on the driveway. She had given you a friendly greeting, asking questions about graduation, before hugging you and driving away in her car. You knew it was bad as soon as you entered the house, seeing Andy glaring at the kitchen counter as you waited for Jacob to come save you. Thankfully, you didn't have to make small talk with the lawyer.

But the his tense expression was enough to keep you quiet in Jacob's room. Well, until he turned up with beers he had gotten from a mutual friend of yours, Cory Gilbert, the bartender at the bar and grill you and Jacob frequented at. He was over 21, legally able to buy the beer, giving it to Jacob as a present for graduation. Cory had given you a nice bottle of brandy, but you had decided to save it for graduation night instead.

Getting drunk hadn't been hard, for Jacob anyways; it took more than a few pleads from your already drunk friend to convince you to drink with him. Once you did, you felt the liquid slightly burn down your throat and you greeted the giddy feeling it left you. Soon, you were found leaning against Jacob's bed, sitting on the floor as the both of you cackled at the animations playing on the screen.

Andy still hadn't came up to hush the both of you; and to be honest, you weren't sure to be relieved or disappointed. You settled for relieved once as you saw Scooby and Shaggy running away from a "monster."

It was half past ten when you finally got up from your spot on the floor, leaving Jacob to drunkenly slur at his phone while the tv played in the background. Getting up, you headed to the bathroom, careful not to make anymore sounds than you already had. You were too drunk to notice Andy standing outside his door, arms crossed as he amusingly stared at your little tip-toe walk to the bathroom.

You finished your business, washing your hands, and heading back to Jacob's room when you lost your footing and stumbled into Andy's arms. You yelped in alarm, glad for the muscular arms that caught you. Looking up, you saw what your drunk brain could only describe as Adonis. You smiled, patting his pec as you slurred. "Thank you, Mr. Barber."

"How drunk are you, sweetheart?" Andy asked, not letting you go. He felt you swaying slightly in his arms, bringing you closer to his chest until your face was only a couple of inches away from his. His eyes flickered to your lips, his tongue licking his own. "You look flushed."

Giggling, you couldn't help but grin at the human contact. You had been so sure he hated you, but from your current position, your assumption seemed silly. "You're making me blush. Me and Jacob haven't been drank—drinking that much, pinky swear."

He snickered at the tiny slip up with your grammar, the slowness and laziness in your voice evidence enough if it hadn't been for the burst of confidence, and shouts from Jacob's room. "You shouldn't be lying, especially to a lawyer. Let's get you sobered up, wouldn't want you waking up with a bitch of a hangover tomorrow, now would we?"

Andy places a hand on your back, his hand intertwining with yours as he tried to lead you downstairs safely but you halted in the middle of the hallway, laughing as you sneaked behind him. You tapped his shoulder, trying to push him down. "Gimme a piggy back ride, Mr. Barber. Like the ones you gave me when I was four!"

The lawyer burst out laughing, finding your drunk confidence adorable. He couldn't help but agree, squatting down enough for you to climb onto his back, your legs wrapping around his waist, your arms locking around his neck. Andy held your legs in place with his hands, shifting you upwards so you rested comfortably on his back. Turning his head, he raised an eyebrow. "You ready, princess?"

You nodded in response, your hair ticking his neck as you snuggled closer to his neck, nuzzling your cheek. All the alcohol had rushed to your head. Andy walked down the stairs, careful to keep his grip on you as he did so. He heard all the tiny giggles and gasps you made, his bad mood dissolving with each sound. He couldn't remember a time Laurie had made him that happy.

Reaching the kitchen, Andy sat you down on the kitchen island, reluctantly letting you go as he went to grab a glass of water. He gave you the glass, but you rejected it, too busy looking at the game on the tv, seeing past the arch and into the living room.

He set the glass on the counter, leaning against it as he crossed his arms, staring at the mesmerized—and drunk—girl in admiration. You turned your attention back on him as soon as the commercials rolled, catching him ogling you. Blushing, you giggled once again, waving him over.

Curious, Andy stepped towards you, surprised when you gripped the collar of his shirt, dragging him closer to you until he was only a couple of inches away. Leaning in, you whispered in his ear. "I have a secret."

"What is it?" Andy asked, one word away from kissing his son's best friend. The tension radiating from interaction had him weak, helpless from the very tempting chance to take you right there and then.

Cupping your hand around your lips, you felt him snake between your legs, bringing you even closer. With your lips near his ear, you whispered, "I have the biggest crush on you. Sometimes I wish you were single so I could ride you until I physically can't."

Andy growled, his hands digging into your waist as his lips hovered over yours, his blue eyes piercing yours. He murmured your name, so close to losing all of his control.

"Every time I come over, I hope you'd push me against a wall, rip my shirt off and fuck a baby in me." you confessed, loving his body warmth. His grip had tighten on you to the point it was borderline painful, but you relished in it, the alcohol numbing the rational thoughts in your head as they screamed at you to shut up.

The lawyer was so close to doing what you wanted, nearly taking you right there. But much to his dismay, his morals had held him back; surely all it would take would be another sentence murmured from your lips but he considered himself strong. "Sweetheart..."

Just as Andy's lips brushed over yours, loud, heavy footsteps made him pull away, spotting his son drunkenly enter the kitchen. You smiled brightly at Jacob as if you hadn't been about to kiss his father. Andy raised an eyebrow at his son, irritated for interrupting. "Jacob, what're you doing?"

"I—" the boy frowned, forgetting momentarily on what he was doing. Jacob pointed at you, returning a random wave. "I was looking for her, because I got worried she fell in the toilet or something."

"She's fine, I was just sobering her up." Andy answered before you could, reluctantly helping you off the table, wishing he had a few more minutes alone with you. "Don't let your mom see all those bottles when she gets home. She won't be lenient as I am."

Jacob saluted in response, watching his dad help his best friend off the table. He was too drunk to notice the longing looks you had exchanged with Andy. "Okay, dad. Night."

Andy stood in the kitchen, alone, watching his girl giggle at something his son whispered. With more confidence than ever, he pulled out the manila envelope from the kitchen drawer, placing it on the table. Laurie would find it when she comes back.

—

Newton, MA - July 4, 2021

"You're so fat." Jacob commented, eyes widening when he felt the baby kick. Without much thought, he invaded your personal space, placing his cheek against your stomach. You sighed, rolling your eyes at your best friend. Jacob chuckled. "This little guy is gonna be a soccer superstar. Like Cristiano Ronaldo."

Andy chuckled from the driver's seat, pulling into the driveway, pulling Jacob off your stomach and back to his seat. "Don't antagonize her, Jake. She might rip your head off for breathing the same air without her permission."

Childishly, you stuck your tongue, making your baby daddy burst out laughing before as he turned off the car and opened the door. But you could hardly say his comment was an exaggeration, grimacing at the memory of nearly snapping Andy's arm off when he had forgotten the almond milk from the weekly visits to the grocery store. It had been both a blessing and curse to have Jacob in the outs of the pregnancy when that incident occurred. You hadn't wanted him to see the growing bump.

With the help of both Barbers, you got out of the car, carefully and slowly for the sake for both you and the babies. The two were chatting as they unloaded the baggage from trunk while you made your way to the house, reminiscing in the days when Jacob's glances weren't filled with betrayal, as if you had ripped his heart from his chest.

It wasn't everyday he looked at you with that raw emotion in his eyes—the betrayed looks had started to decrease the more time you spent together—yet you still felt guilty. With a hand over your growing belly, you opened the door, bombarded with memories from childhood, once again reminding you who you were having a baby with.

Once Jacob had sprinted out of the room, in anger and denial after seeing his father tangled in bed with his best friend, you had pushed Andy off you, wanting to go after him. When Andy argued it was better off for Jacob to be alone, you had blamed him for everything, for ruining the lifelong friendship with Jacob and weeks of stress caused by sleeping with him the first time. The lawyer hadn't denied the guilt or blame like you thought he would—like you wished he would—instead drowning in the insults you threw his way.

You didn't start to forgive him until Jacob came back, but then loathed him after the your best friend announced he needed some time and space to think it out, uncertain which conclusion he would come to. Thankfully, he couldn't live without you in his life, no matter how hard he tried, so he came running back, wishing for an apology when all you wanted to do was cry and wish you didn't have to spend two months without him.

Andy, like the charming bastard he is, had slowly broke down the wall of bricks made from your anger and hatred, and unwillingly, you let him in. Jacob had explained, quite awkwardly, he should be in no way a problem to yours and Andy's relationship, only to be slapped by the pregnancy news. Surprisingly, he kept it light and took it well.

Unsurprisingly to Andy, the fetus (he had been very upset when you occasionally called the baby that) had been conceived on Thanksgiving, proving the plan B useless. You had given up any pretenses at that point, and gave in to Andy's precautions no matter how ridiculous they had been; safety for the fetus.

Your parents had been content with the excuses you've made, only a little suspicious on not wanting to see them during the months of carrying the baby. The baby boy to be precise. But the lack of visiting since college was consistent enough for them to not rise suspicions.

You settled down on the couch, exhausted by the road trip despite how short it was. Newton was hardly small, but with Andy's former title, it wouldn't be long before rumors spread, and with rumors came exaggerated stories along with middle-aged women judging your life decisions because they had nothing to do all day other than sit in their lazy asses.

Andy and Jacob set the bags down by the doorway, Jacob letting out a huge sigh while his dad walked over to you, kissing your forehead. You couldn't help but smile at the gesture. He sat beside you, leaving no room to breathe.

"Hello, gorgeous."

"Ugh." Jacob groaned, turning his eyes away from the PDA. "Okay, I'm gonna go before any more of this happens. I'll see you guys for dinner."

Before you could ask, Jacob closed the door, practically sprinting to his car. Seeing his father in bed with his best friend had scarred him. You turned your attention back to Andy, head tilting in confusion. "Where's he going?"

"He's giving me some alone time with you. Had to pay him a few bucks after he complained about stealing you, but he'll manage for the next couple of hours." Andy explained, his hands absentmindedly stroking your belly, his smile beaming.

"What's happening in the next couple of hours that he can't be here for?" you asked, curious. The blast of hormones had been a gift Andy knew he didn't deserve, with you crawling over his body in the earlier months of the pregnancy, waking him up with lips wrapped around his cock. With his precautions for the baby, he'd been a tease for the past few weeks with the due date just barely two months away.

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head in amusement. "It's not that, sweetheart." Andy chuckled at your pout, disappointed by the outcome. "I just wanted to spend some time with you."

You knew there was something more, but you let it go, one thing at the front of your mind. Your fingers clawed at his shirt, biting your lip. "Then let's spend some time together." Leaning closer, you softly nipped at his earlobe, whispering in his ear. "Daddy."

Andy murmured your name, stern and sure but the bulge in his pants deemed a different story. That was enough for you to stop seducing him. "You're going to be the death of me."

Laughing, you turned the tv on, cuddling next to the soft man. Well, as close to cuddling as you could with the belly in the way. Your feet had been sore despite the not having to walk much all day, but the road trip had taken a lot of your already drained energy. Andy understood, gently taking off your shoes and massaging your feet until they no longer felt sore.

Two hours were wasted watching true crimes documentaries, Andy passionately commenting on the evidence they clearly had missed, and voicing his opinions of who was clearly guilty. You muffled a giggle, amused by the former lawyer. It still surprised you to see Andy so ... light? The forehead creases only coming together when something had displeased you, no matter how tiny. Retiring must've done something to relieve the stress he carried.

It wasn't until the third Buzzfeed Unsolved episode came on that you got tired. Andy, sending the change, muted the screen, pressing a soft kiss on your close eyelids. He positioned you so you were leaning against him, your back to him as you laid on the couch, a hand over your growing stomach. Anxiety seeped through his veins.

Andy cleared his throat. Playing with your hair, he said, "Marry me."

Your eyes snapped open, growing wide as you pondered if you had heard him right. "What?"

He shrugged. "Marry me."

Andy had said if so casually, it wasn't a question, but a statement. Or more accurately, a demand. You turned around, putting space between you two. Your eyes were hurting from the lack of blinking. "What?"

He reached in his pocket, the small, velvet box that had rested uncomfortably in his pocket took your breath away. Andy opened the box, revealing a diamond, far too beautiful to look at. His smile widened, taking in your shocked expression. "Please marry me."

A minute of silence passed.

"You're fucking insane." you whispered, staring intently at his blue eyes who were sparkling in excitement. He knew the outcome.

Andy's smile hadn't wavered. "Is that a yes?"

"No!" you shouted, getting up from the cough. He stood up, his arms ready to catch your unbalanced body. You glared at him. "I'm not going to marry you because I'm pregnant! No! No, no, no. I forbid you to ask me that question until this baby is out of me."

He laughed, wrapping an arm around your waist. "So, when I ask in two months ... ?"

"You'll just have to see." you murmured. A smug smirk fell on his face, but this one was warmer, more heartfelt.

"You'll say yes."

You shrugged, but couldn't help the smile appearing. "Probably."

< previous

[butteraway]

when time runs out | iv

⋆ summary:  A young girl has fallen deeply ill with an unknown disease in her, so with all her free time spent in an empty hospital room, she spends it online playing video games. That's until she meets her cousins friends, one spiking her interest with his extremely vulgare language.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader

word count: 2.5k

warnings: none

authors note: I wanna say im so sorry for lying to yall about that extra chapter KJDFFF😭😭 ALSO @chibiiichann I APOLOGIZE FOR SPAMMING YOU WHENEVER I REPLIED TO YOU💀 A DIFFERENT ACC WOULD POP UP BUT THE FIRST CHAPTER WAS AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER EXPLAINING THE OC'S CONDITION JFJDJD

"HAHA! I GOTCHU NOW LOSER!" Y/N smashed the buttons on her controller, basically on the edge of her bed. A grunt was heard through her headphones, then a loud bang with laughing in the background. Y/N felt her stomach turn at the sound of this, feeling a little left out, but smiled nonetheless.

"HOW'D YOU EVEN DO THAT?!! YOU’RE DOING SOME HACKING MY GUY!" Denki yelled through the laughing in the background, hands pulling at his hair. He seriously couldn't believe it!

"I'm not! I just wanted to show Sero I'm way better at this game than you are. And turns out I am!" Y/N let out a loud laugh, falling backwards onto her pillow. After finding out that 'Tape Dispenser' went to her cousin’s school by hearing his voice in the back of Denki's room, she got to learn more about this Sero dude. She already knew this after their last game a few nights ago, but he was so chill. It was still insane for her to find out that her cousin and online friend went to the same hero school. The coincidences in this world. Y/N thought as she grinned.

"It's okay Kaminari, you still lasted a long time! But you did get brutally beat by Y/N at the end though..." Sero said, trying to raise Denki's low spirits, but only succeeded in making him more miserable. Rustling was heard through Y/N's headphones, making it obvious that there was movement happening.

"You don't understand Sero! THIS IS THE ONLY GAME I COULD FULLY BEAT THIS GIRL IN!" Denki shook Sero by the shoulders, quickly doing the action. Cackling was heard through the speakers while the girl wiped a tear from her eye. Sero laughed along, as he was pushed to the ground by Denki. His arms were crossed as he looked away, upset that Y/N managed to finally beat him in every game they played.

"It's okay Denki, not everyone can be as good as me!" Y/N exclaimed, getting up from her bed to start taping specific parts of her room. Kaminari continued to complain about his defeat to Sero, who only chuckled in response. As she finished taping the bottom of the walls, Y/N sat back on her bed, sighing in content.

"So, how are you? I'm doing terribly after being utterly destroyed by you, by the way." Said Kaminari, opening his water bottle and taking large gulps from it. Y/N felt her face light up as she remembered to tell Kaminari of her future activity.

"Bro, you won't believe this! So, basically, they're actually letting me paint my room! All by myself! How fricking cool is that?!" The girl laughed out loud, jumping on her bed in excitement. Kaminari's eyes widen, in surprise and slight fear, sitting up and taking in the new information.

"Wait, really? But isn't that like extremely dangerous? Cuz of the chemicals and what not??" He tried his best to keep his voice leveled, not noticing Sero look at him weirdly. That guy had no idea what was happening.

"Well, they said that they were gonna do something to the paint so it won't hurt me or anything, I don't know what, but-" Y/N was cut off by an extremely confused Sero. "Wait wait wait, hold on. I don't understand what's happening. How can paint harm you? Besides like...eating it. And what do you mean by 'finally getting to paint your room?’ Silence was the only answer he got. Sero gulped in embarrassment, thinking he asked a really personal question.

"Um, it's nothing du-" A loud 'shhhhhhh' was heard from Y/N, who let out a shaky breath. She never really told anyone, it's not like she could either way, being confined in the hospital room for a long time. She pushed a loose strand of her away from her face, preparing herself to tell Sero.

"Well, the reason is because I basically live in a hospital. I can't go outside, or have 'unpurified' air, as the doctors like to say, meaning my interactions with people and the outside world are extremely limited. That means anything that's not cleared of dust and germs, I guess, can be extremely harmful for me? As pathetic as it sounds, it could actually kill me, haha." It was quiet as Sero took in the information, a large wave of emotions crashing on him. A person shouldn't have to be locked in a room for the rest of their life. Especially someone who is such a sweet person like Y/N.

"I-I'm so sorry to hear that Y/N. If you don't mind me asking, how...how long have you been in the hospital?" The young girl answered with a quick 'Two years', and that's when Sero felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. Kaminari abruptly got up and headed towards his door.

"I'm gonna get something to eat, you want something dude?" Kaminari's voice was low and trembling. It didn't take a genius to see that the blonde haired boy needed some time alone. "No thanks." Kaminari let out a hum, quickly exiting his room and closing the door shut. Sero heard the loud sniffs that slowly faded away, as he hung his head down.

"Hey, you good Sero? That was probably a lot to take in, sorry." Sero shook his head, letting a sad smile adorn his face. "It's fine, really. I actually feel honored that you're comfortable telling me. Feels like we're getting closer, to be honest." He smiled happily, meaning every word he said. And Y/N knew that. "Ha, we are though!" The air was tense, despite the two teenagers being in different rooms.

Y/N went to clear her throat, but was interrupted when a light knock echoed throughout her room. "Someone there?" Sero asked, noticing her silence and hearing the very faint knocking.

"Yeah, um Sero, I'll call you guys later, my doctor wants to talk." Y/N quickly replied, seeing Receen open the door and walk in with his thin suit on. Sero let out an ok and they hang up. Y/N finally took in how the doctor looked, noticeable eye bags under his blue-grey eyes, from lack of sleep. His dark hair slightly tousled, probably from putting on the protective helmet that came with the suit, and a small smile on his welcoming face. And a large container of paint in his left hand. Her eyes immediately lit up.

"What’s up doc? I see you have something in your hand, can I see it closer?" The small girl asked, getting up and making a grabbing motion with her hands. Receen chuckled, lifting up the paint for Y/N to see. Even if he were to hand her the container, she wouldn't be able to hold. She was just too weak. Said girl let out a high pitch 'OOOO ' in excitement.

"I'm not sure if you wanted more, but we managed to get you your favorite color! This should be enough to paint the room, you can even put a second layer if you want." Receen walked over to where Y/N put all the equipment, opening the container of paint. And with a low grunt from him, the lid was opened. Y/N watched with amazement as the doctor poured the soft looking paint into a tray. She picked up a roller near her, and drowned the roller in paint, the white fluff getting covered in color.

The two began painting, Y/N's hand shaking every now and then. After painting half the room, they sat in silence, resting for a while. Receen seemed to be tense, though Y/N didn't seem to notice since she was too happy to speak. Receen let out a breath, breaking the silence, causing Y/N to look towards him.

"I didn't get to ask you how you were, did I Y/N? How are you?" Said girl let a beaming smile spread on her face, causing Receen to slightly squint his eyes from the intensity of her smile. "Honestly, I haven't felt this happy in a very long time! I actually still can't believe you guys really let me do this! Thank you so much!"

Receen gave her a small smile while rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not a problem, you could’ve asked sooner and gotten this done a long time ago. You've been here for two years, so please don't be afraid of asking for things!" At the mention of her time spent in the hospital, Y/N lowered her head, causing Receen to wince. Well, might as well tell her. The doctor cleared his throat and began to talk.

"Y/N, as you are aware, I, along with many other doctors and scientists, have been working hard for you to be able to go outside again. To see your family, hug them, be a normal kid again." There was a pause and that alone caught Y/N's attention. She looked up at him. "There is a way for you to finally do that, Y/N."

Shock evident on the girl's face, she abruptly stood up and faced the doctor. There was absolutely no way anyone could have found a cure for someone like her. Someone who had an incurable sickness. Someone who was too sick, to even have medicine. He's lying. Y/N narrowed her eyes at the grown man sitting in front of her.

"With all due respect Doctor, I highly doubt that ​​that's possible. Cuz, y'know? I basically have an incurable disease? I mean, like, even if you did manage to find a way for me to leave this place, how do you even know it's gonna work? I don't think you've tried this medicine since no one in recorded hospital documents in the past have had people like that checked in before-"

"How do you even know that?"

"-so how do you truly know it'll work?" Y/N quickly finished, completely ignoring his statement. Receen sighed, scratching his head. "We live in a world where quirks exist. Would you believe me if I told you centuries ago that the human race would evolve to have super powers? It's kind of like that, but not really." Y/N eyed him suspiciously. He's avoiding the question.

Receen looked straight at the girl standing in front of him. He felt slightly intimidated by her piercing gaze. He quickly looked away and got up, towering over Y/N's small frame. Then he smiled. "Y/N, you are a very sweet girl, no doubt about it. I know how much you want to get out of here, and I want to help you. My team has created this almost perfect pill, especially suited for your sickness. I know you're very cautious, just like your mother, but I can only reassure you, that these are your ticket out of here." He pulled out the bottle from his protective suit, shaking it in front of [Y/N].

Her eyes widened as she restrained herself from reaching out and snatching the bottle. Her eyes slightly narrowed as she pulled herself together. Crossing her arms and slightly tilting her upwards, she looked into the doctor's bright eyes. "There's always a catch when it comes to these kinds of things. What's the price if I take these? My lifespan shortens, I only have five hours to go outside, it drugs me or something?"

"I'm hurt you think I would just give you these without setting out the consequences." There was a slight glint in his eyes before it quickly disappeared. Y/N hummed, urging the doctor to continue.

"There are exactly 15 pills in here. And consuming just one of these bad boys right here, would allow you to go outside! Though, time is very important when taking these. You'd have 10 hours before the pills effects wear off. These would dull your hypersensitive senses, but not to a point where you can't feel, smell or do anything. No no, it'd just be like how you were before. You'd feel slightly dizzy and be a little itchy, but besides that, nothing too extreme. It just dulls all your body senses down." Receen gave Y/N a small smile. She looked a little weary, unsure if what he said was true. She looked at the bottle then back to Doctor Receen, fingers twitching every now and then. Breathing in and letting it out slowly, Y/N stared straight into the doctor's eyes.

If I take these, I can finally go out. I can hug mom and dad, I can be around Denki again. I can meet Sero face to face and feel the grass again! I can be... happy again. But if these don't actually work, I'd immediately die on the spot. I'd be able to go outside though. Aah, so much going outside, I can meet new people! I don't wanna spend the rest of my days slowly rotting away in here anyway.

"So Y/N, are you going to take them or let all our time go to waste?"

Sero looked at his hands solemnly, thinking about what Y/N had told him. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat, then lightly slapped his cheeks to stop the wave of emotions from spilling out.

"Yo, you good dude? It's not everyday I see someone willingly slapping themselves." Kaminari chuckled, walking in and closing the door with his foot as he carried a soda bottle and a bag of chips towards the boy sitting on his bed. Sero grinned, feeling the sadness of everything wash away.

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. But what about you though? After we had that conversation, you were, well, umm... kind of out of it." Kaminari froze, letting a dejected smile appear on his face. Dragging a hand down his face, he let out a sorrowful laugh.

"She's my best friend. My first real, true friend. She's basically my sister at this point. So when she collapsed that day, I felt my whole world crashing down. She is the sweetest, the most kindest, person I have ever met. She never let me degrade myself, alway cheered me up when people called me stupid." Kaminari rubbed his eyes, opening the bag of chips and plopping one of them into his mouth.

"It hasn't been the same ever since she left, her parents barely come over anymore, and they're always so sad whenever I see them. My own parents aren't the same either, they treated her like their own daughter. I can't even begin to imagine how Y/N feels about this all. She was the top in our grade, highest scores in our test. No one could compare to her. M-my heart breaks for her. She lost everything." Sero let that information sink in, thinking about how she was before. He smiled as he saw Kaminari's shoulders begin to shake. He cares so much for her.

He put his hand on his shoulder, watching Kaminari slowly lift his face towards him. "Come here you emotional ball of feelings." Being the friendly guy he is, Sero gave the sobbing boy a hug, cuz hugs fix everything.

"No homo though bro." And with that, they both laughed out loud, continuing their bro day.

[reality-antidote]

they blocked this blog (as is their right), but only after making a couple assumptions/accusations that I'm gonna address before I leave it alone:

A) the definition of the word 'abuse', and the qualification that it involves a fundamental imbalance of power is not my opinion, it's just a fact. so they can say OP is abusive and I can say they're victim blaming - that doesn't make it true.

B) I am someone with longstanding, debilitating mental health issues that affect my hygiene. I didn't mention it because, firstly I already did in the comment section, and secondly, I shouldn't have to. so it's alarming to me that this person's takeaway here is that I think people like me don't deserve support and are less important than the germs they carry - that'd be such a heinous mindset to have, not to mention extremely hypocritical. it's not what I'm saying at all.

I'm saying it's possible to have these very valid struggles while still doing your best not to violate the boundaries of those around you, or subject them to undue health risks. I'm saying a lack of consideration for these factors shows disregard for others.

personally, if I haven't been able to wash my hands on any given day, I'll use hand sanitizer and then minimize time spent touching communal surfaces, including animals. and I hope others would do the same for me - in fact, my health depends on it.

sure, it may be discouraging to restrict myself that way, but what's the alternative? to just say 'oh well', and carry on like normal without any regard for those in my path? this isn't about self-worth - it's about boundaries, but also safety and conscientiousness. we just had a pandemic (it's still not over), you know? casually causing health hazards isn't okay just because I'm depressed (again, speaking as a lifelong clinically depressed individual here). nothing is black and white, but each of us is responsible for our own actions, regardless of <insert mitigating factor here>. do I want people to be understanding and accommodating of my limitations? of course, but I can't ask of others what I'm not willing to give.

in the vein of this person's question to me, would they feel comfortable knowing they or someone they loved caused the illness or death of, say, an immunocompromised person just because they touched something they didn't need to, after not washing their hands? I know I wouldn't want that on my conscience.

my point is: the dad in this case doesn't have to pet the cat. in the context given, his insistence on doing so despite how it affects his family, indicates deeper problems with his character. he evidently won't even use hand sanitizer, something that would go a long way and require almost no effort. regardless of whatever underlying factors there are, his actions put him in the wrong.

of course the only thing we have to go on here is OP's side of the story, of course it's a subjective perspective. but if we aren't engaging with it on its level like the blog says to, then what's the point? and I won't make assumptions about the person I'm quoting here like they did about me, but I will say it's probably harder to see the red flags in OP's post if you've never dealt with an abusive parent before.

anyway this whole conversation's run its course and I know I'm probably being super annoying at this point, but I sincerely hope my meaning and intentions are clear.

and finally, even if they won't see this, I want to apologize if I truly did misinterpret what this person said. clearly they felt misunderstood just as I did, so I'll take this as a learning experience going forward.

WIBTA if I told my father to stop touching my cat because his hands smell?

🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋 -> so I can find it easier

Okay so I (f19) still live with my parents (m57 f51) and I decided to adopt a cat. After some talking they said they didn't mind a pet in the house (this was a change of heart btw, we never had a pet, they were always super strict about it) but I will be the one raising him. No problem there. Anyway, it's been a year now and they both have grown to love the little guy a lot and are actually taking care of him too.

Now here's the issue: my father doesn't wash his hands. It's enough to make me feel sick at the thought, but I avoid him and never touch him and barely interact with him. But sometimes he'll come over to where I'm sitting with the cat or where my cat is napping and he'll rub at the back of his head (the point the cat cant lick himself clean) and coo at him.

I noticed a few days ago, when I was inhaling his fur, as one does, and suddenly that part reeked. Then I noticed it more often, and it didn't take long to connect the dots. The worst part is that he usually finds the cat just as he's done with the bathroom. ITS DISGUSTING. My poor baby doesn't deserve to be touched with filthy hands. I'm always quick to clean him but the fact he's been touched makes me sick.

Two things you need to know about my father: 1) He is bad person. I won't get into details cause it will turn into an essay, but the more I know about him, the more distance I put between us. 2) The only correct thing he's done is provide for his children without complain or ever asking for anything back.

One thing you need to know about the family dynamic: My father's hygiene is a topic of discussion that comes up a lot in the recent years (by me to my mom), and her response always is that he's tired and he does so much for us, so are we really going to humiliate him over such trivial matters? (The matters are NOT trivial. He is genuinely disgusting).

One thing you should know about me: I have started arguments over his disgusting hygiene before and he instantly turns into a child going, "blah, blah, yeah, yeah, whatever, are you done?" which makes me become even more vile and mean and in the end he secretly tells my mom my behavior hurt him (and acts like a wounded dog) so that she will come and tell me that I broke my father's heart. Same formula each time.

So look. If I tell him he'll react the same way, and although I'm working on not feeling guilty over things like that, I'm not yet there. I know if I repeat the argument a couple times he'll get the memo and be so humiliated he'll stay away from the cat entirely. I also know that my mother will start a cold war with me if I do so. But I care about my cat a lot more, and I don't want dirty hands touching him.

So far I'm always taking the cat away before my father gets to touch him, distracting him with toys and TV mice. But I won't always be home to supervise.

So do you think it's an asshole move to essentially shame my father for the sake of my cat not coming in contact with germs?

Fyi the hygiene thing started in his 50s, he wasn't like that before

What are these acronyms?

[picturejasper20]

Steven and White Diamond parallels

Many fans in the Steven universe fandom have talked about how Steven and Jasper share many similarities in Future, such as their refusal to get help, lacking purpose in Era 3 and being rejected by someone. (Lapis in Jasper’s case and Connie rejecting Steven´s proposal in Together Forever).

Yet something I haven´t seen covered very much is the parallels that Steven and White Diamond share and how they are both foil of each other. In this post i´m going to point out a few parallels I have noticed while watching the series and reading others Steven universe fans´ posts.

An year ago @dippingpines​ made a post with gifs pointing out the similarities between this two characters: Both grow pink when they are confronted about their hidden feelings and want ¨to be better¨.

¨I can't tell Pearl how I feel, 'cause she'll blame herself, and spiral outta control, and I'll have to pick up the pieces. And- I don't want any more 'high and mighty' advice from Garnet. I just want to know better for once- Steven in Prickly Pair

¨But I'm not supposed to be like this! I'm supposed to know better, I'm supposed to be better, I'm supposed to make everything better!¨ White Diamond in Change your Mind

This is one of the parallels that is easiest to spot: Both Steven and White Diamond have an unhealthy tendency of burying their feelings in a way no one would be able to find out there is something wrong with them. This is motivated by their desire to be perfect and be a ¨good person¨ which involves knowing what it is best for others and not having any flaws.

They both take their selflessness to extremes, ignoring their own issues and considering thinking about themselves as a very selfish thing to do. When someone tries confronting them about this issue, they deny it and pretend to be fine.

Aside from them burying their feelings, they both often lack identity: Their own self is usually defined by what they think they should be and not what they really want to be. This leads them to go through an identity crisis when realize they don´t have to be what others expect from them.

When White Diamond found out she had a flaw, she completely broke down because, according to her, a diamond can´t have a flawed. They need to be perfect, they need to have zero weakness and they know what is best for the rest of the gems. It got to the point that her entire personality was only defined by being perfect that she didn´t know who she was supposed to be if she couldn´t be a diamond.

¨This can't be happening, I can't have a flaw, I'm supposed to be flawless! If I'm not perfect then who am I? If you're not Pink, then, who are you? Who is anyone?¨ White Diamond in Change Your Mind

In Steven´s case for a long time he tried to be like his mom. Once he accepted he could be his own person and that Rose only wanted him to be himself, he didn’t know who he was really supposed to be. What´s more is that growing up his relationship with his friends and family was defined by helping them with their problems that lead him to feeling lost in Future when they didn´t really needed his help anymore.

¨This beach,it never changes. I mean, a lot has changed. I'm trying to be cool about it, but it feels weird. Everyone's moving on, a-and I should be too¨

¨They're better off learning from Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. I used to be helpful, but the Gems don't need me anymore. Agh! Why do I need to be needed? Steven, pull it together!¨ Steven in Prickly Pair

Another aspect that both characters share is assuming they know what best for another person. They both have this need to control and telling others what they think they need instead of just asking or considering the other person´s feelings first.

In the episode ¨Prickly Pair¨ this characteristic is when is most evident: Steven creates this space in where he can have control his plant ¨friends¨ who aren´t going to leave him and need his help. Steven started carrying out this little experiment as a way to cope with how all his friends were leaving and how he felt things were changing too fast for him.

In this specific situation Steven behaved in similar way White Diamond did when she was stuck in her own ship on Homeworld: Telling everyone what to do and what they should be, ignoring other gems´ agencies and feelings. With White Diamond it is more notice because of her gem powers allowing her to control other gems and her dialogue in ¨Change your mind¨.

Now I want to talk briefly about how Steven and White foil for each other.

According to Wikipedia a foil is:  ¨A character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist.¨

In this post I already mentioned how Steven and White are selflessness and want to help other gems. The thing is there is a big difference on how their methods when it comes to helping:

Steven allows others to be flawed and grow in their own pace. He doesn´t force them to change and accepts that people are not perfect. He wants to help people to recover but at the same time he understands he can´t tell them what they should be. He knows each person has they own feelings and thoughts and there is a line you shouldn’t cross.

White Diamond thinks that the gems are an extension of herself and thus she thinks she knows what is best for them. She wants to erase the gems’ flaws instead of letting them grow in their own way. She uses her powers to ¨help¨ them to be perfect without realizing she is forcing herself in other people. White wants to help but only as long as others do what she thinks is best for them.

¨Please stop helping them. You'll only make things worse. That's what you do. I make things better. Here. There we are! I've removed their flaws. Now there is nothing to hinder my white light from sparkling through them.¨ White Diamond in Change Your Mind

To put more simple: Steven lets others to have flaws and be their own person while White forces others to do what she thinks is best for them, often using her powers to erase things she considers character flaws.

In conclusion: Steven and White Diamond are two characters that share similarities despite being so different. They both want to ¨fix¨ people with their own methods and often neglect their own feelings. White acts as good foil to Steven thanks to all these parallels which are emphatized when they two finally confront each other in ¨Change Your Mind¨.

Credits to Steven Universe Wikia for the gifs used

[one-boring-person]

Only Traitors Consort With The Damned. (Part Ten)

The Lost Boys x reader

Warnings: blood, mentioned death, injury, gun violence

Context: The SRS have finally arrived, in time for Halloween.

A/N: This is a little bit late, but it's slightly Halloween themed, so I hope that it's still alright! Spot the reference I "accidentally" left in there😉😅

Masterlist

Eerie music plays from hidden speakers as the costumed crowd ambles by, children screaming and laughing as scare actors jump out at them, the variety of zombies, witches and mummies, not to mention vampires, too, astounding, movie characters and even some book characters making appearances around every turn, familiar and unfamiliar lines being spoken to cheerful bypassers. Painted masks and faces litter the mixed throng of people, the twinkling, orange-cast lights throwing the crevices of each visage into sharper definition, ghoulish grins becoming longer, twisted grimaces becoming even more painful, the many slashers roaming the Boardwalk now covered in a blacker blood than before, each fake knife, axe and machete lathered in the stuff. A sickly sweet odour lingers in the air as sweets and chocolate are passed around, often accompanied by a smoking joint, or sachet of some other high-class substance, the strong reek of sweat providing an unpleasant undertone as the stifling costumes heat their wearers despite the late October chill.

As a child, I used to love Halloween. There was always something enchanting about it: you could become anything, or anyone you wanted for the night, and no one would question you on your choice, or look at you oddly because everyone was doing the same. A cheery atmosphere always seemed to hang over the annual event, the leading pumpkins that glittered along the streets and the creative decorations building up the necessary excitement over the weeks before the 31st; a fun game of mine had been to run down the streets of my hometown and count every pumpkin we could see, separately, and see who had the highest tally at the end of the day. Once the winner had been decided, they'd get first dibs on the treats handed to us at each door when we later went Trick-Or-Treating, a rule which drew many arguments to the table when we eventually compiled our loot.

Now, as I watch the roaming children, all I can think of is how easy it is for the supernatural to wreck havoc on this night, given that the spiritual veil is much thinner than usual, and no one suspects anyone of the authenticity of their outfit until it's too late. On his night, the SRS always have their hands full, meaning everyone is deployed, not just the normal Hunters: the retired Soldiers still capable of fighting, Clean-Up teams and A.R.O (Aftermath Recon Operatives) Soldiers all made to help out with the bloody massacres that occur all over the country. The holiday has a morbid side that no one sees, and there's always a high body count the next morning.

Beside me, Marko pushes and shoves at people that come too close, the vampire loudly criticizing any costume made to look like his species, his "improvements" just a little too specific to be joking ones, not quite realising that I'm not listening to him. Instead, I'm scanning the crowds, looking out for the tell tale uniform and tactics used by the SRS Clean-Up teams, eyeing any suspicious person keenly until they prove to me they aren't a threat, often earning me harsh stares from their companions. The two of us look out of place in our "normal" clothing, neither of us dressing up, as we forgot that it was, in fact, the 31st, meaning a costume would've provided a good disguise in case we do come across any dangers. Even as we walk, I bite at my lip, feeling very exposed in my current state, my fists clenching at my sides as I try to stop myself from fidgeting too much, knowing that a nervous disposition is a great disadvantage in a fight, should one break out.

"Hey can we get something to eat? I kinda want some food." Marko suddenly asks me, not waiting for my reply as he pulls me over to a nearby sweet stand, the vampire excited by the prospect of buying the sugary treats.

Uneasy, I stand and turn back to the crowd, watching each face closely, my gut starting to feel odd as I notice something odd about a certain few members of the crowd. Eyes widening in realisation, I grab the back of Marko's coat and drag him away from the stand and into the alley behind it, ignoring his protests as I clap a hand over his mouth.

"Be quiet." I command him in a low voice, giving him a warning look as I slowly take my hand away from his mouth.

"What are you doing?" He hisses at me, eyes narrowed.

"They're here." I respond, looking out at the crowd as I try to figure out what to do, thinking over my options until I notice that someone has spotted us over here; someone who I've already identified.

As I watch, they start to make their way over to the stand, casually wading through the people around them as they try to look inconspicuous, though the mere sight of them makes my pulse hitch.

Thinking quickly, I grab the front of Marko's jacket and pull him closer, pressing my back to the wall as I lean closer to his face, ignoring his shocked expression.

"Kiss me, quick!" I order him, wrapping my hands around his neck as he splutters slightly.

"What?"

"Do it!" I growl, pulling him closer.

Still shocked, the vampire leans in and presses his lips to mine, carefully kissing me until I yank on his hair, silently asking him to be a little more rough, to which he responds by shoving me harder into the wall, his hands gripping my hips much tighter. Groaning slightly, I momentarily forget why we're in this situation, letting myself enjoy the rough kisses as he ravishes my mouth with his tongue, only opening my eyes again to look briefly over his shoulder at the Boardwalk, noticing that the person is no longer there. Knowing this, I let the kiss come to its natural end, before pulling away.

"Thanks..." I say, awkwardly, blushing as he reluctantly lets me go, the vampire clearly wanting more as he allows his hand to linger at my hip a little longer than necessary.

"No problem." He wipes his mouth, grinning at me as he regains his composure, "What did you need it for?"

"One of them was coming over here, and it was the first thing I could think of." I admit sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Right." Marko lifts an eyebrow, smirking, "How did you know it was one of them?"

I laugh, dryly, gesturing with my head for him to follow me back out into the crowd.

"Well, back in New Orleans, the head of the SRS realised one Halloween that our Soldiers need a disguise for this particular night, without being too conspicuous, so that they fit in but can also be recognised by each other. She decided that the mask of a plague doctor would be fitting. She said it works for us, because we're ridding the world of a "plague", just as they were." I roll my eyes, "Obviosuly, this makes them very easy for me to spot them, seeing as I used to dress up the same way."

"Oh, right." Marko nods, understandingly, evidently sending some mental explanation to the rest of the vampires, who are stationed around the Boardwalk.

"You can tell them apart, because they have a golden cross engraved just below the right eye on the mask, so we don't get mixed up with others." I clarify for him.

"Good to know." He frowns, "Did you say she decided? As in the head of the SRS is a girl?"

I nod, a little annoyed by the question, but knowing where he's coming from.

"Yep. Her name is Valentine Fletcher. She's the best fighter we've ever had and has the largest body count of all. Not even the Generals around the world come close to her efficiency, she's just too good. I've met her once, and she was also one of the most stuck-up princesses I've ever come across."

"I guess that's why she's the leader, then." Marko chuckles, throwing an arm around my shoulders.

"Excuse me." An unfamiliar voice interrupts us, a hand placing itself firmly on my shoulder as I turn around to face the person. My heart drops as I take in the eerie black beak-shaped mask, the golden cross glittering under the right eye as they catch the lights, the cloaked figure keeping a strong grip on my arm.

"Can I help you?" I ask, getting ready to run as Marko notices the cross, too.

"Yes, I was wondering if you could come with me." The Soldier says, though the tone in her voice is much more demanding, informing me that there is, in fact, no choice.

"I'd rather not." Without a second thought, I slam my arm into her elbow, snapping it inwards as she lets out a surprised cry, allwoig me time to duck under her and and push past her, sprinting away into the crowd with Marko hot on my heels.

Five loud gunshots sound behind us, the Soldier having shot at us with a hidden gun through the crowd, screams and shouts of fear and panic suddenly tearing through the air as the atmosphere suddenly becomes too real, the bullets smashing into the ground behind the two of us terrifying the costumed Boardwalk-goers. Instantly, the crowd around us starts pushing and shoving each other, the heaving current of people now pushing us along as they scramble to get to safety, arms flailing and legs kicking as they go, slowing our progress significantly. Growling in frustration, I pull Marko to the side, intending to reach the alley again, wincing when there are two more shots behind us, though I make it to safety without a scratch. It's only when I hear Marko's laboured breathing that I realise he wasn't so lucky.

"Shit, Marko, are you going to be alright? Can you keep moving?" I ask him, being to figure out where he was shot as he starts to sway on his feet, eyes drooping closed as the pain starts to eat away at him. Grimacing, I swiftly scan the area, spotting a large bin a little way away, which I drag him over to.

"Get in there and close the lid, you'll be safe." I tell him, opening it and giving him a leg up into the reeking interior, helping him settle as quickly as I can, before I go to move again, "I'll be back."

With one last look at him, I firmly shut the lid and start running down the alley, taking as many winding corners as I can, hoping to throw them off as I start to hear pounding footsteps behind me, shouts and calls seemingly coming from everywhere as I start to breathe harder, my pulse pounding in my ears. Adrenaline pumps through my veins, giving me the speed I need to get away from my pursuer, the air rushing harshly into my throat as I turn down another backroad.

A sudden gunshot, followed by a spike of agony in the back of my knee brings me to the floor, my body crashing into a discarded car as it rolls awkwardly to a halt, groans of pain swiftly starting to leave me. Gripping at the new wound on my leg, I try to force myself upright again, only to be kicked back to the ground again by a cloaked figure, who keeps kicking until I'm cowering on the ground, blood pouring down my face. When they are finished, they reach down and force me into a standing position, half-dragging me out of the alley and to the car park conveniently placed by the mouth of the road, where a circle of similarly clad people are waiting, the forms of three kneeling people visible in the dim light of the streetlights. Pulling me over to them, my attacker throws me to the ground in the centre of the circle, manhandling me onto my knees, drawing a small cry of pain from me.

Looking around at the three kneeling people, I feel my heart stop as I instantly recognise them: David, Dwayne and Paul, the three of them bloodied and beaten, burn marks littering their faces from the holy water that was most likely used on them. Horror and guilt flood me as I see them, David's head coming up so he can make eye contact with me, his blue eyes filled with hate and anger.

"Are we all here now?" Someone asks, their voice unfamiliar to me.

"No, there is one more." A voice calls from a little way away, Marko soon being forced onto his knees beside Paul as he is dragged into the light. The vampire is pale now, dark circles appearing under his eyes as his vampiric features break through, his body trying to keep itself from shutting down as he slowly bleeds out, the bullet wounds still oozing the crimson stuff out onto his shirt.

"Ok, that's everyone, we can get started." The person speaks again, this time sounding more decisive.

"(Y/n) (Y/l/n), you have been arrested for conspiring with the enemy, and for shooting a senior officer, willingly, instead of a vampire that was held hostage. Do you accept these charges?" Someone else says, the voice somewhat familiar, though I don't remember where from.

Knowing it is pointless to resist, I lower my head to my chest and reply.

"I do."

"And you are aware of the punishments that these crimes bring upon you?"

"I am."

"And they are?"

I take a deep breath, my muscles tense as I try to ignore the pain in my body.

"Execution on the sight of capture." I recite robotically, knowing them well.

"Good, you remember some form of honour." They sneer, before addressing the rest of the gathered Soldiers, "Are there any volunteers among us who would like to carry out the deed?"

"I do." My blood runs cold at the sound of the voice, my head lifting to look up at the Hunter that has stepped forwards.

"Elijah Forsyth, you wish to perform the necessary execution of (Y/n) (Y/l/n)?" The first speaker questions, confirming the name to me even as they take off their mask.

Instantly, the cold blue eyes lock with mine, the dark-haired Hunter giving me a poisonous look as he limps over to me.

"I do."

"Then it shall be so. Do what you must."

With those words, Elijah steps over to me, drawing a gun from his belt and cocking it deliberately, maintaining eye contact as he lowers it to my forehead.

As the weapon is brought to my skin, I keep my chin up, refusing to feel bad about the actions that brought me here in the first place. Without a word, I accept the fate that will befall me.

Part Eleven

[hazbinsandweirdos]

Pierre let out a slight laugh at the question then shook his head. "Does your father keep cameras in his stash houses? You can't play innocent if people can get evidence against you." Especially if you're robbing royalty and have to hold onto the thing for a while.

"Old school security system, a guy is left in charge and has to maintain it, boss holds us responsible if anything goes missing or wrong." It also kept them out of the fire if someone found the place. Someone could take off with the stuff and if anything cropped up for sale that they had, they hunted down the guy that robbed them and took care of it.

"Problem is, the guy responsible for Giovannis places were him...I've been working with him for years, he knows I wouldn't rob him or hurt him but his guys know I'm married to a hitman and that they have to bail me out of trouble when I have a target on my back." And he had a constant target on his back.

One or two days in hiding and things were usually handled and Pierre was only out a weekend but what happened put a stop to that safety net. Someone took out Gino, took off with all his stuff and took off with Pierres as well, sure it could be a coincidence but given that he worked for Giovanni, he could see how it looked to the Bulls men.

Gino was shot with a blessed weapon, something any hitman could get their hands on easily and something Niss was capable of using, he was left alive but barely and Pierre knew where the stash houses were because he had to do drops constantly. It didn't paint a great picture for him and it was easy to see how his stash house getting flattened just before, looked like a cover up for the theft.

He let out a sigh then lifted his hands to hold the others face, leaning up to bump his nose against the spiders. "Counter offer, you go get me a new phone because I can't go out and I'll need one if we get separated and I'll take a nap, okay? I won't get far on only two hours of sleep anyway and after this I am exhausted." Pierre chuckled as he smiled, giving the other a kiss.

"I love you so much and I am sorry for how I have been. Between this and that asshole calling me, I haven't been sleeping much lately and all at once I just didn't want anything to do with you or anyone and I know that's ridiculous to do." Not to mention dangerous, he nearly isolated himself completely because he was panicking and despite the little voice telling him to turn tail and run and leave Arackniss behind, he didn't want to.

@sinnerxroulette (Arackniss to Pierre) "Shit, have you been awake the entire night?Jesus, have you been awake the entire night?"

Pierre looked to the window to see the sun coming up then to the other with a nod before turning from his own coffee to grab one for the spider. Apparently so. He hadn't realized he hadn't been back to bed. "It's fine...it is not the first time I haven't been able to sleep." Probably wouldn't be his last either. Worry had a way of keeping him up.

"I don't have any work to do right now so, I will just sleep when I can." He reassured as he offered the other the mug. "Besides I got a couple hours, that's good enough. I used to go days without sleeping sometimes."

@sinnerxroulette